School where flood sacks pupils every October

For four years, pupils of Itowolo Community Primary School, Ikorodu, Lagos, have always gone on   compulsory holiday to allow the floods that usually take over their school every October recede. At times, they could stay at home for two months. The school is usually flooded once the Ogun and Osun dams are released. Floods from the dams flow through communities including Ajegunle, Itowolo, Mile 12, in Lagos, and Warewa, Arepo in Ogun State among others.

The 400 pupils of this community school lag behind in their education as no provision is made to compensate for what they miss during the period they are at home.

Though the Lagos State Government has said the school and the whole community should relocate, the people have refused, saying the water came to meet them. When our correspondent visited the school last week, it was shut down.

According to a former councillor of the community under whose tenure the school was established, Mr. Nujeed Isiaka, the community has been facing one challenge or the other since the invasion of the water in 2007.

“Our children’s education suffers most,” he noted, adding, “We started experiencing this flood in 2007.  But our major concern is the education of our children who are forced to stay at home for the water to recede.   With our efforts, we have been able to get a few people who gave us money for sand filling.

“But the problem still persists, so what we are planning to do as a community is to pool our resources together and find a way of salvaging the situation.  Series of meetings have been held and every parent has agreed to be part of the project.”

Isiaka debunked insinuations that the community was waterlogged.   “Contrary to the news that has been going round the town, this community was founded over 200 years ago, and such a thing never occurred.  We never experienced flooding until 2007 and it seems it has come to stay if nothing is done to prevent it. When the school was established about 30 years ago, there was no sign that the place would be affected by water, otherwise the school wouldn’t have been here,” he added.

A parent, Mrs. Sherifat Shekoni, said that if government refused to respond promptly to their needs, parents would find solution to the problem. “It is not up to four weeks that school resumed that our children are being forced to stay at home. This is what we face every October, and it is now dawning on us that if we don’t take any step to help ourselves we will continue to suffer. All we are asking for is that government should assist us, as we are also making effort, by contributing money to support government.  We don’t want our children to continue to stay at home when school is in session,” she said.

Already,   parents have employed the services of home teachers to teach their children every evening.

One of the members of the Parents Forum Committee, Mrs. Moji Adebayo, said parents are now up and doing to ensure that the school is not moved to another place.  “We felt bad when the state government said that the school should be relocated to another place and we decided to levy ourselves by contributing N1,000 to sand fill the school.  We are doing this because it is the only school we have here, its relocation will affect our children because we cannot afford to risk their lives by allowing them to cross the express road or go to far places to get education. We have realised some money from our contributions, with the assistance from government, if the water recedes, we shall embark on the project,” she explained.

Also, the community’s Chief Imam, Alhaji Kazeem Abdul-Raheem, said government’s quick response to the problem would save the school and the whole community from experiencing the situation every year.   “Though some in government have assisted us before, when we wrote to them, they responded quickly and helped us in pouring sand here, but it is not enough.  We need more sand to fill the school so that the flood will not hinder our children from learning.

“We are ready as a community to put an end to this menace that embarrasses us every year.  So we are appealing to the state government to please assist us for the sake of our children,” he said.

While calling on the government to assist the school, one of the executive members of the PF, Mr. Kunle Ilelabola, also encouraged members of the community to contribute adequate money towards salvaging the situation.

He said, “It is very pathetic that things of this nature are happening. The whole school is flooded and learning activities cannot take place. We have decided that after the Eid-ul-Kabir, when the water must have really gone down, the pupils will go back to school. We will also sand fill the place.

 “We have written letters to government and the state has promised to do something.  And we have even asked the community to help themselves, unfortunately many of them are not rich and we cannot continue to levy them. Though they agreed among themselves to contribute N1,000 each, and they have realised N60,000, this can’t take us anywhere except government intervenes.”

On whether the school should be relocated, Ilelabola said both the government and the community could make the school a conducive place of learning, adding that the school was the only school that serves about four communities.   He said, “Though government has said that the school should be relocated to another place, the people have refused. And it is unfortunate that the people cannot leave this place because they are used to it, government should just help sand fill the place.

“There are places around here like filling stations and some other companies, which are not affected by the water, because they were adequately sand filled. The school should stay, if the community is able to levy themselves and get some substantial amount, ask the government to assist, they will achieve their aim.   The N1,000 they billed themselves won’t do much.”

However, efforts to get the Education Secretary, Ikorodu, Mr. Oduloye, to comment on the issue proved abortive as he directed our correspondent to the State Universal Basic Education Board. “I am not authorised to speak with the press, SUBEB will be in a better position to comment on the issue,” he said.

Also the school headmaster, Mr. Kehinde Adeyemi, who was called on phone, said he couldn’t say anything.

But the SUBEB Chairman Mrs. Gbolahan Dawodu, said flooding problem was  beyond what SUBEB could handle. “However, the state government is looking into the issue holistically. We will look around and relocate the pupils temporarily.

“The terrain of the state is naturally poor during the rainy season but government is addressing the problem conscientiously with the resources at its disposal,” she explained.