Early this year, the Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Prof. Kaniye Ebeku while on a tour of schools on resumption day, said the state governor will focus on improving the education sector of the state in 2017.
“The education sector “will experience more quality changes this year.”
This declaration has attracted a lot of comments and insinuations, most of which border on the kind of focus in terms of development of both infrastructure and personnel.
The comments and insinuations came from parents whose children/wards are based in the rural areas where developments in virtually all sectors have not been hitherto truly felt.
A visit by The Tide to some of the schools in Port Harcourt and some rural areas revealed that the bulk of development in terms of infrastructure and personnel are focused in the urban areas.
Comparatively, while a good number of the government-owned schools in Port Harcourt are relatively equipped in terms of infrastructure and teaching personnel, most of the schools in the rural areas have nothing to show in this wise.
The Tide’s investigation revealed that for the government’s promise to provide quality education to come to fruition, a lot of work needs to be done.
A visit to State School, Elem Sangama in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area (LGA), for instance, reveals that in addition to ill-equipped classrooms, some of the classrooms are dilapidated to the point of no roof in most of the classrooms, while some of the classrooms have become nests for bats and other birds.
In Community Secondary School (CSS), Bori, (Junior Secondary School), the school has ill-equipped classrooms as one of its key challenges.
In most of the classrooms, there are more students than desks, with some of the students sitting on the floor while others are virtually packed on the few available desks. The situation is almost the same with the Senior Secondary of the school.
At Baptist Model Secondary School, Old Bakana in Degema Local Area, the situation is so bad to the point that the school finds it difficult to do practical’s during the Senior Secondary School Examinations. This is because there is no laboratory in the school to enable the students carryout practicals in science subjects.
The situation is more pathetic at Community Primary School, Nortem in Bori, Khana LGA which was established in 1980.
The Tide gathered that since its establishment, the only time the school had had any feel of government was in 2013 when the school took delivery of some sets of desks and books which have all gone bad.
A cursory look at the school from outside the gate gives the impression of a long abandoned compound with dilapidation crying out from the gate, with nothing to show that a school exist in the compound.
When The Tide visited the school last Friday during their long break period, specifically at the Nursery section, a teacher was seen assisting a pupil to defecate in a cellophane bag which she threw behind the building after the child was done.
Further investigation revealed that there were neither conveniences nor water in the whole compound.
The entire three blocks of buildings in the compound were highly dilapidated from the roof, windows, doors and even up to the floor in the classrooms.
Educational activities in some rural areas have virtually gone extinct due to years of insecurity warranted by years of cult related activities.
To focus on improving the educational sector of the state, therefore, the government may need to be guided first by the Sustainable Development Goal 4, which is on development of education.
Three of these Sustainable Development Goal 4 targets specifically related to infrastracture development in schools. If meaningful developments can be made in education in Rivers State the provisions of these goals should be expbited.
The first is target 4.1 which states that, “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education to relevant leading and effective learning outcomes.”
Target 4.2 states, “By 2030, ensure that girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education.”
The third is target 4a, which says “Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent inclusive and effective learning environment for all.
Beyond these, however, the government would also need to spread whatever developmental ideas across the state, particularly the rural areas which have not have their fair share of development in its entirety.

Sogbeba Dokubo