Floods have rendered 548 primary and secondary schools in Kogi State non-functional, the state’s Commissioner for Education, Dorcas Elebiyo, said on Thursday in Lokoja, the state capital.
Though the minister did not give the total number of students affected, at an average of 200 students per school, over 100 thousand school children are blieved to be affected.
The commissioner, who addressed newsmen on the effect of the disaster on the education sector, explained that while some of the schools had been submerged, others had been converted to resettlement camps for victims of the flood.
She said that all the schools in the Ibaji Local Government Area had been completely submerged.
Ms. Elebiyo said that learning and teaching materials, buildings, tables and chairs, and other facilities in the schools had been destroyed, pointing out that the government has started taking stock of the items with a view to replacing them.
She said the government was thinking of moving the pupils and students of the affected schools to unaffected ones so as not to disrupt the academic calendar. According to her, morning and afternoon shift system may be introduced for the merged schools to avoid chaos and rowdiness.
The commissioner also said that the government intended to tackle examination malpractice by encouraging students to cultivate a reading habit, as well as through constant training and retraining of teaching and non-teaching staff.
President Goodluck Jonathan has described Kogi as one of the states most affected by floods and placed it among the Category One states that would receive N500 million in federal assistance.
Source: Premium Times
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