Old students of Government Secondary School, Malete, Kwara State have cried out to the state government over encroachment of the school land and decay infrastructure.
Speaking with journalists on the golden jubilee anniversary and N500 million appeal fund for the school infrastructure in Ilorin, on Thursday, members of the old students association of the school, led by Engineer Kadiri Ibrahim, said that their greatest challenge is to change the face of the school.
“You feel like crying when you get to the school. People have encroached on the school land. It started about eight years ago. The school land has either been turned into shops or almost all the structures like teachers’ quarters have been vandalised or encroached upon. School teachers now come to school from Ilorin daily to teach due to poor school atmosphere,” he said.
The chairman of the old students association, who said that a member of the group had carried out a survey plan of the school to determine the size of the school land, called on the government to assist with the required funds to process the survey plan.
“We did survey plan to know the boundaries of the school. We handed it over to the surveyor general for the Ministry to carry out the final processing for a required sum of N100,000.
“We call on the government to assist in this regard since it is a government school. We also want to do landscaping of the school to attract more students. It is sad to reflect that the school had a population of over 300 students before and now, not up to 200 students in the school, where only 10 students are sitting for final exams,” he said.
Engineer Ibrahim, who said that the group had carried out some infrastructure development in the school, added that the efforts included renovation of school hostel, school dining hall; being used as exam centre and classroom, repair of handpump borehole with a plan to do motorised one.
“We also renovated administration hall and we plan to provide fans, chairs and tables for teachers. We have it in our plan to renovate teacher’s quarters and establish a computer centre,” he said.
On efforts to improve the academic ability of students in the school, Engineer Ibrahim, said that the association has partnered with the Kwara State University, (KWASU) Malete for the university to send teachers on teaching practice to the school, including use of corps members, due to lack of adequate teachers.
He suggested a devoted sum of money like N1 billion by the state government for schools in each senatorial district of the state to help improve infrastructure.
“We don’t want the school to die and it will not die. So, I call on members to help and get people outside to help in the task at hand. We should use our level of individual attainment to assist the school in order not to go into extinction and to be proud of our alma mater.
“It’s sad that public expenditure takes 75 per cent of annual budgetary allocation and 25 per cent is left for infrastructures. Government should increase budgetary allocation to education. N1 billion for each senatorial district for secondary school infrastructure for a targeted period of time will go a long way.
“Malete only got renovation of a block of classroom in the recent intervention of some schools in the state by the present administration. However, the school needs a total intervention,” he said.
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