Siminalayi Fubara, the governor of Rivers State, stated on Wednesday that 90% of the state’s primary schools are in ruin and 75% of them are experiencing a staff shortage.
Fubara claimed to have learned about the appalling conditions of the state’s elementary schools when New Global, a company hoping to work with his administration to improve teacher capacity, conducted a field assessment of the staff members they planned to train.
Fubara expressed his dismay and disappointment with the field report, pointing out that the foundation was unable to find enough teachers to train.
The information was disclosed by the governor in a statement released on Wednesday by Nelson Chukwudi, his chief press secretary.
However, he made his intentions of giving a new identity to the current state of the schools known.
He stated, “It will surprise you to note that an agency came to Rivers State. They call them ‘New Global’, and they were willing to spend $5m.
“It is not for infrastructure but to train our teachers, to provide software and other things to improve the learning process at the primary level.
“I told them to go round and assess the primary schools in the state. After their assessment, you won’t believe it that 75 per cent of our primary schools have no teachers; 90 percent of the schools are dilapidated.
“So, how will you now put in the $5m? So, when I talk about education, I really mean it. It’s not education where we renovate schools, and call people for inauguration.
“We are talking about touching what is important, because, for us to develop as a society, for us to get it right from the foundation, it is at the primary school level.
“If we don’t get that aspect right as a foundation for preparing our youths as the leaders of tomorrow, then, we have lost it.”
The governor added that the state’s secondary and primary healthcare facilities were non-operational, placing an excessive burden on the state’s tertiary healthcare facilities.
In order to do this, he stated that the five zonal hospitals will be reviewed in the upcoming days in order for them to open and start providing healthcare services to a larger area of the state.
“The only health facilities that are functional in this state are the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, and maybe, the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.
“The other aspects of the healthcare system that should be functioning are primary and secondary healthcare. We have to do everything that is within our power to make sure that they function.’
“Now, you see, there is so much pressure because the primary healthcare centres have a limit in terms of what they can attend to. So, the pressure is always on the tertiary institutions, what you call the teaching hospitals.
“We have already taken it upon ourselves. By the special grace of God, in the next one or two weeks, we are going to make sure that we revisit the five zonal hospitals in the state to make sure that they function.
“Now, when they function, they will give support to the primary healthcare centres. A lot of people die because of minor illnesses and unavailability of health centres, not well-equipped with qualified personnel. So, we know it is important.
“It might not be something people are seeing, but those are the key things to development and the things that people need, and to prove that, yes, we have a functional government.“
Along with promising to revitalize state-owned companies that had fallen into disuse, he also said that his administration will keep fostering an environment that is conducive to business.
