FEATURE: Kwara school suffers as contractor fails to deliver on classroom project

Once renowned for its high-quality education and abundant facilities since its establishment in 1974, Ojoku Grammar School in Oyun Local Government of Kwara used to attract many parents for the enrollment of their children. However, all its remarkable qualities have been lost due to severe neglect and underfunding over the years.
Its entrance arch resembles that of a barren settlement desperately in need of government attention for comprehensive rehabilitation. The collapsing classrooms have led to a significant decline in student enrollment compared to what it once had.
The decay in infrastructure and inadequate learning facilities have extinguished the flame of quality education in the school, causing many parents to lose interest in enrolling their children due to the potential collapse of the remaining classrooms. A few parents have also withdrawn their children from the school.
The entrance of Ojodu Grammar School
Abdulhayi Isiah, an ex-student of the school, said while he was in primary school, the crowd and high level of learning at Ojoku Grammar School motivated him to inform his parents that he would like to enroll in the school for his secondary education. However, a few years after his enrollment, the school started losing students due to a lack of teachers and conducive classrooms.
“They had many students back then, and if you saw them coming out after their closing time, you’d feel amazed by their numbers and very neat appearances. It was still better when I was their student, but we had challenges like not enough teachers, so some students stopped coming, and we also saw some of us attending a new school.
“I think it is even worse now, judging from their entrance you see the school needs attention. The government hasn’t done enough to revamp the school to its heyday. Even though the community is growing with more population, the school is losing students,” Mr Isiah expressed.
In Nigeria, there has been conflicting data on the number of out-of-school children, oscillating between 10.2 million and 20 million. However, in 2022, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recorded that the total number of out-of-school children had surpassed 20 million. This places the country among the nations with the highest number of out-of-school children, with Kwara State contributing 22 percent.
To facelift the dire infrastructure and prevent its decline towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of quality education for all children, an intervention stepped in to revamp the school with new classrooms.
The project signage at Ojodu Hrammar School
The project
In 2022, the federal government under the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) earmarked N30 million for the construction of three blocks of three classrooms in Ojoku Grammar School to ameliorate the lack of classrooms and improve quality learning in the school.
Facilitated by the former clerk to the National Assembly of Nigeria, Ojo Amos, the Federal Ministry of Education awarded the contract to Skidoo Construction & Engineering Limited.
However, an investigation by this reporter revealed some irregularities that contravene the project’s scope.
According to the document obtained, the Ministry of Education only paid the sum of N20.6 million, and awarded the contract to Skidoo Construction & Engineering Limited to construct two blocks of two classrooms, which fell short of the initial approval.
Shockingly, during the reporter’s visit to the school in June, it was discovered that the contractor had only completed one block of two classrooms, despite being contracted for two blocks of two classrooms. This discrepancy raises questions about when the project scope was altered and how well the current state of the project aligns with the original specifications.
The floor of the building has started cracking and the furniture has started dusting off due to poor construction.
A block of two classrooms the contractor executed at the school
Bilkis Adam, a parent of a student in the school, told this reporter that the school has lost the high heritage it once possessed. She added that the school has always been the top choice for secondary education in the community.
“The school wasn’t like that, but you know the issue with the government, they often don’t care to maintain and pay attention to things. Due to a shortage of teachers, the school has been losing students. If attention had been paid to the school earlier, it would still be functioning well today”, she said.
Speaking about the project, Mrs Adam said the block of classrooms this reporter described has always remained locked whenever she visited the school. She added that there is a need to fully open them to create more classrooms for them.
“I don’t think they’ve started using it because I’ve never seen it open. But if it’s a government project and has been completed, they should start using it, especially since the school doesn’t have enough classrooms to accommodate more students“, she added.
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The Vice-Principal of the school, Bolaji Akande, who spoke on behalf of the principal, stated that the classrooms have been standing but are only used for departmental classes. He explained that students from the arts, sciences, and commercial departments share a classroom, but they are separated into the new classrooms during department-specific subjects.
The supplied furniture inside one of the classrooms
He, however, expressed reservation on the changes in the scope of the project and poor construction in the supplied facilities, describing the work as ‘shoddy.’ He added that the contractor didn’t engage the school management with the design of construction to ensure its commensuration.
“To my own best of knowledge, we just heard one of the ex-students in Abuja facilitated the project to this school, we don’t even see him, they (contractor) just came and started the work, and throughout the execution the contractor didn’t interact with the school management then.” Mr Akande lamented.
“We heard it should be more than this, it should be three blocks but this is only what is here. The floor is not ok, it doesnt suppose to sound like this, it is not well done at all”, he stated as he knocked the floor to demonstrate the poor work done by the contractor.
Abdullateef Faruk, a community elder, expressed concerns over the state of the school and the new project, and said if the government has started to give the school attention, they should ensure close supervision of the contractor.
“We’ve been crying for rehabilitation of this school for a few years. It has been a good community school our children always wanted to attend, but seeing the sight of the buildings, the quality of education the school offered in its early days can not be compared to the one of now.
“But we’ll always have some kind of corruption, if government wants to embark on any project they should engage the community, and school management to keep their eyes on what is going on, and they should also supervise it so that the contractor won’t deliver another thing different from what he was asked to do.” Mr Faruk expressed.
The cracking floor of the new classroom block
Fatal consequences, scary data
In Nigeria, inadequate infrastructure has influenced the education sector, leading to the soaring number of out-of-school children and lack of quality learning across the states, including Kwara State.
In Kwara State, the lack of quality education, influenced by underfunding and understaffing, has hindered students’ progress and encouraged malpractices in senior secondary certificate examinations such as WAEC and NECO, placing the state among the lower-performing states.
In 2021, Kwara State recorded recorded 54 percent pass of students with five credits, including English and Mathematics in WASSCE, putting the state at 34th national wide by the number of credit passes.
Meanwhile, the state in 2019 recorded 165 schools blacklisted by WAEC for exam malpractices.
While Ojoku Grammar School is affected by poor infrastructure, hindering conducive learning, the school is in dire need of comprehensive rehabilitation and additional classrooms to help it function in its capacity.
However, an FOI letter sent via mail to Skidoo Construction & Engineering Limited inquiring about the alleged shortages in the project was ignored as it was not attended to as at the time of filing this report. A search on NG-Check revealed that the company may not have sufficient experience for construction projects, as it was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in the mid-2019, indicating three years of experience in the construction industry.
A similar request, addressed to the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Works, asking for detailed information and clarification of discrepancies in the execution of the project, was not responded to as at the time of filing this report.
By: Abubakar Abdulrasheed
This story was support by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation
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