Floods in Dambam, headquarters of Dambam LGA of Bauchi have forced pupils to stop attending school at the Model Central Primary School thereby losing a whole term.
A resident of the town told our correspondent that the problem has persisted over the years as the concerned authorities have refused to do something positive about it.
According to him, every rainy season, the children will have to abandon attending Schools for 3 months until the rain stops thereby losing one full term lamenting that the development is a great setback to the government’s educational efforts.
He further lamented that during the high period of the season, the classes are always flooded even to the window level forcing the schools to be completely closed.
All the residents who spoke on the development expressed regret that the government has neglected the schools to be submerged thereby denying innocent children the opportunity to access education at the foundation level.
They called on local and state governments to have another look at the situation in order to salvage it to enable the children to have free access to education which is one of the basic rights of every child.
While reacting to the development, State Commissioner of Education, Dr Jamila Dahiru said that it is not that government is unaware of the situation but taking measures to solve it.
According to her, “for now, the students have been evacuated to a safe place, their safety is the most important thing to the Government. We are trying to see that the problem is solved.”
The Commissioner added that in order to ensure that the students did not lose the ongoing term, they will be taken to other schools that are not prone to flooding in order to continue academic activities.
Jamila Dahiru assured that a contract will soon be awarded to control rainwater by constructing drainages as well as doing complete landscaping of the entire environment.
She stressed that the government is committed to upgrading the standard of education in the state as well as ensuring the best practices in the sector.
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