Ondo state, in the South Western region of Nigeria, has 948,353 public primary school students to its 1164 public primary schools. By this, it would mean that there would be an average of 814 students to each public primary school in the state.
The high ratio of students to school is perhaps why the state government awarded contracts for the renovation of six classrooms in 53 primary schools in the state. The contract for all the schools is worth N1.145 billion.
These contracts were awarded between 2019 and 2020 and the Dataphyte project tracking team visited 6 of the 53 primary schools who are beneficiaries of these renovation contracts.
In May 2020, the state government awarded a contract worth N20.177 million for the renovation of six classrooms and offices at L.A Otapete primary school located in the popular Idanre Local government.
The contract was meant to be executed in four months and was awarded by the state SUBEB. From the date of award, the renovation should have been completed by October 2020.
According to details on the state’s open contracting portal, Adramyte Nigeria limited, a company founded in 2007 although inactive on the Corporate Affairs Commission portal, got the contract.
When Dataphyte visited the school in May, 2022, there were no visible signs of renovation and the classes were in a poor state.
Speaking on the contract, a personnel at the school, Mrs Olowokande I.O noted that no work has been done at the school. “They came in 2020, saying that they wanted to renovate the school, they removed the roofing and then fixed it back but since then we have not seen anybody again. In September 2021, the persons that removed the roofing sheets came again, they did a gutter and even the gutter has collapsed”.
“The workers used the sand of a nearby resident when they came to fix the gutter and they did not even pay the man. Even the roofing they fixed has started leaking. When it started leaking, we could not keep students there again. Whenever it is raining, we usually move students from the class” she noted.
Mrs Olowokande shared that the places that were meant for renovation would have accommodated a hundred students, if the renovation had been done.
Attempts to reach Adramyte Nigeria limited proved abortive as the contact numbers listed on the procurement portal of the state were unreachable.
Abusoro Community Primary School
While renovation was done at Abusoro community primary school, the students barely have chairs to sit on to learn inside their newly renovated classrooms.
An official who spoke to Dataphyte and asked not to be named, noted that despite some renovations done in the school, students lack chairs inside of the classrooms.
“Our students do not even have chairs to sit down on, when they do renovation such as painting and changing the roofings, how will students learn in absence of learning furniture” the official quipped.
The contract for Abusoro primary school was awarded to Farrog Development Limited, an inactive organisation established in 2007 according to the details of the Corporate Affairs Commission.
St Williams Primary School
The renovation of St Williams primary school was done however, Dataphyte gathered that the school lacks furniture to aid students’ learning in the school.
The renovation contract was awarded to Farrog Development limited which like the other contractors is inactive on the Corporate Affairs Commission Website
According to an official in the school, the absence of enough equipment, furniture and security in the school has led to a loss of students.
“Many students left this school and started attending a skill acquisition and vocational centre built by the federal government nearby, thinking it is the same as this school because there is learning equipment, security at that centre but here we lack learning equipment or facilities or even security” an official stated.
It was stated that the school usually had 600 students but now barely has 200 due to the issues. The official further said that the school is just trying to make efforts to get support and mobilise the residents to re-enroll their children in the school.
St Monica’s Primary School
At St Monica’s primary school, despite the project description reading that six classrooms with an office will be renovated, only four were renovated.
Personnel who spoke to Dataphyte but sought anonymity due to fear of victimisation noted that works done by the contractor at the school were shoddy and some of the works such as windows started falling off soon after completion of the four classrooms. They further noted that the school’s staff had to contribute money to start repairs on some of the works that started failing after the contractor left.
The teachers noted that fixing 4 instead of 6 classrooms has forced them to start demarcating classrooms with wood so multiple classes can be held in one facility.
Local Authority Primary School
Teachers at the Local Authority Primary school told Dataphyte that the renovation of 6 classrooms has helped students learn better while noting that ‘the contractors rightly executed the work.’
Dataphyte reached out to the procurement officer with the state’s SUBEB in charge of the contracts, Adelani Bayegun, who said that he was unaware of the developments as reported, and promised to reach the monitoring officers in charge of each project in respect of the findings.
He however afterwards said the monitoring team in charge of L.A Otapete primary school stated that the project is ongoing.
The poor execution of contracts, and clear lack of needs assessment for interventions is an issue that the state must address so as to get value from the investments in education projects. Ondo state has 25,909 out of school children, one of the lowest in the country, and this may be jeopardised with unavailability of learning facilities beyond the building as is the case in St. Williams Primary School.
Ensuring that contractors fulfil the terms of the contracts as stipulated is also important, and a good way to do this is by publishing the bill of quantities which will aid in the assessment of the quality of construction. Contractors can then be held accountable for shoddy workmanship as seen at St. Monica’s Primary School where teachers had to start contributions to fix issues that the renovation contracts should have fixed.