FEAR REIGNS IN 30-YEAR OLD HIGH SCHOOL!
Flood Chases away Principal, Staff, Students in A/Ibom…Management of Girls’ School sends SOS to Govt
*Begs Gov Akwa Ibom State Govt to ‘arrest’ flood menace
*2,000 Resident Students on campus face Environmental Health Risk–INVESTIGATION
BY ISIOMA CLEM/EDUCATION REPORTER, NIGERIA
THE Management, Staff and Students of a-30 year old high school in Ikot Ibiok, Eket local government, Akwa Ibom are presently having nightmares and facing hopeless situation regarding the continual and unchecked flooding of this school, without any action being taken by either the local or state government authority to arrest the flood menace.
Staff, Students may lose School
Naija Standard gathered that there is palpable fear among the staff and students that they stand the risk of losing the entire school to the rampaging flood which has already taken its toll on the buildings and made the pillars very weak.
Environmental Health Hazards on Students
An on-the-spot assessment on the institution reveals that the health of over 2000 students, majority of whom are resident on campus is being threatened at the moment as a result of the pathetic condition in which the school finds itself.
The entire school community has been in a dilemma as a result of the torrential rains which has completely submerged the school in an emergency river, thereby preventing day students and staff from accessing the school compound. While the boarders could not leave their hostels for the classroom as a result of the high-rise water level that held them hostage.
A staff of the school, Mfonobong Joseph Eshiet and a French Teacher, Elizabeth Udoka, said they were living in fear as a result of the danger posed by the perennial flood and expressed fears that reptiles and other wild animals may take over the school environment.
Elizabeth however attributed the cause of the rampaging flood to the building of houses and other structures on the waterways in the community and made a case for the appropriate government department to remove such illegal structures which are blocking the water channel in the area in order to allow for free flow of the water.
Remarks by the Principal
Responding, the Principal of the school, Princess Grace Bassey Etang, appealed to Governor Godswill Akpabio to come to the aid of the school in a bid to salvage the students and teachers from the threat posed by erosion and flood.
She lamented that the school dormitory, classroom block, office, staff room, Assembly hall and Staff Quarters well affected by the flood menace. The principal commended the governor’s effort in repositioning the education sector in the state through the introduction of free, compulsory education policy; appealed to the governor to approve the construction of additional class room block, and hostel facility to contend the increasing school population currently put at 2383. She further explained that she had to direct the boarding students to go home since the students had ended their terminal examination.
