Termites Take Over Osun Primary School, As Students Share Classroom •Staffroom Converted To Classroom

teachers having difficules in teaching them.

Speaking with OSUN DEFENDER, a parent at the school, Mrs Folashade Babarinde, said the Parent Teachers Associaon (PTA) had intervened to put the classrooms in proper shape, but nothing much could be done as a result of the fund that was required.

Babarinde noted that the lack of adequate classrooms was not ideal for the students, calling on the state government to provide more classrooms for the school.

She said: “The school is in urgent need of government a en on and I want to appeal to the state Governor to urgently intervene before it is too late.

saw the classrooms and termites had already taken over most of the planks there and it is very dangerous as the planks might fall any me.

“We the PTA have tried to do something about it but the money involved is more than what we can afford. The reason why our children are going there in the first place was because we were not financially buoyant.”

Another parent who iden fied himself as Alfa Misibau told the medium that the number of students in a class was too much, saying provision of another building will ease the burden.

Kazeem Badmus Yusuf Oketola

PRIMARY educa- on is one of the most important aspects of a person’s life. It is the beginning of growth and development. Basic educa on enhances the producon of a complete man at a later stage of life.

However, some obstacles to educa on can prevent a child from performing well academically. The school environment has a strong impact on the learning and assimila on of students. When there is a conducive teaching and learning environment, both teachers and students will perform op mally.

But with an unconducive learning space, the students might find it difficult to excel even when the teachers go extra mile to teach.

If environment is anything to go bye, pupils of C.A.C. Primary School, Araromi, Gbodofon area, Osogbo, may find it difficult to receive the needed func onal educa on.

The pupils, as sighted by OSUN DEFENDER on Monday, were in unconducive classrooms. The li le available classrooms were overcrowded by pupils.

Termites have destroyed the planks of majority of the classroom roofs, genera ng debris and dust. As a result, the ceiling of some of the classrooms have fallen, posing threat to the safety and wellbeing of both the pupils and the teachers.

OSUN DEFENDER noted that a pupils of difference classes were arranged in a classroom due to lack of adequate classrooms. The school library has also been converted to staff office while the main staff office has been turned to a classroom.

Primary I and II pupils of the school were using one classroom with

“The report I get whenever my children came back from school is not encouraging and it always scared me, thinking about the condi on of their classrooms.

“When we went for the PTA mee ng, I also

“I want to appreciate the teachers in that school. It is not easy at all but they have been managing the situa on very well. I want to appeal to the Governor to provide another building for the school and try to renovate the one currently in use.”

Long-Las ng Insec cidal Nets (LLINs).

Areport by World Health Organizaon (WHO) has revealed that a total of 3,467,808 residents of the State of Osun have fully received COVID-19 vaccines since the outbreak of the virus.

WHO also reported that 313,732 people were par ally vaccinated while 959,686 had received the booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the state as of April 30, 2023.

This, according to the report, ranked the state among top three states in Nigeria that have fully vaccinated at least 70% of the eligible popula on.

Osun has an esmated total popula on of 5,764,868 and about 50% (2,882,434) are in the age group of above 18 years.

The organisa on made the report during the 2023 Africa Vaccina on Week in Osogbo, last week Monday.

Parts of the ac vies for the Africa Vaccina on Week was administering of rou ne immunisa on an gens and deworming drugs; diarrhea treatment with Zinc tablets and Oral Rehydra on Solu on, distribu on of

It also includes antenatal care; nutri onal screening and counselling; distribu on of Vitamin A supplementa on for children, as well as sensi sa on on exclusive breas eeding.

In addi on, family planning counselling and the administra on of the tetanus vaccine and folic acid were given to pregnant and women of childbearing age.

Speaking at the programme, the State Coordinator of WHO, Dr. Bello Ahmed, said the COVID-19 and rou ne immunisa on sensi - sa on and vaccina on drive was adopted to accelerate rapid progress to ensure more people, par cularly children are protected from preventable diseases.

“The COVID-19 and Rou ne immunisa on sensi sa on and vaccina on drive is one of the strategies adopted to accelerate rapid progress of vaccina on uptake to get back on track to ensure more people, par cularly children, are protected from preventable diseases”,Ahmed explained.

He stated that the campaign was in tune with the 2023 AVW theme “the Big catchup” which sought to close the immunisa on gaps cause by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The AVW was leveraged to conduct Fixed and Outreaches sessions to Hard-to-reach areas across the 30 Local Government Areas (LGA) of the state.

“While the COVID19 vaccina on encourages eligible adults to receive the COVID-19 vaccines to protect themselves against the disease and serves as an opportunity to improve COVID-19 vaccina on coverage in the state”, he said.

Apprecia ng WHO and partners for the support in protec ng the residents of the state, the Execu ve Secretary of the State Primary Health Care Board, (OSPHCB), Dr Oluwole Fabiyi, said Osun has recorded significant improvement on immunisa on ac vi es due to the quality of integrated campaigns conducted so far.

He disclosed that with support from WHO, Osun established fixed posts at primary, secondary and ter ary health facili es, outreach posts in places outside the health facili es and special loca ons like Border se lements.