Lagos state House of Assembly has called for a meeting with the Ministry of Education to as a matter of urgency commence an integrity test on the two-storey dilapidated building of Ogba Primary School,Ogba in Ikeja Local Government Area of the state.
According to the lawmakers the building, was showing signs of collapse just 23 years after its construction and needed urgent attention. The news as presented by the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Hon. Lanre Ogunyemi recommends that where the dilapidated building meets the test, it should be immediately renovated before the pupils are returned to their classrooms at the earliest possible time. The House also directed the State Ministry of Environment to deflood the school as it had remained flooded.
Ogunyemi said his committee visited the school following a petition by the school’s Parents-Teachers Association, PTA and that it observed that “the building is in a state of repair and therefore not conducive for learning. Besides, it is also unsafe to the lives of the pupils and teachers in the school.
“The pupils have to be transferred to share classrooms in Ogba School II”, Ogunyemi later said. Some of the lawmakers observed that some of the classrooms were overcrowded thus endangering the lives of the pupils.
It was also noted that there were no toilet facilities in the school and that the pupils are forced to use the facilities at the school II. “The only toilet in the school is blocked and the school shares convenience with Ogba Primary School II,” the report states.
Adding to the report, Hon. Rasheed Makinde suggested that integrity test should be carried on all schools in the state adding that a school in the Ojokoro area was suffering same fate. Some of the lawmakers noted that a part of the building was falling off. Hon. Abiodun Tobun said part of the recommendations should be that if the building fails integrity test, it should be urgently demolished.
