Nigeria: Kaduna Community Constructs Classrooms To Tackle Illiteracy Amongst Children, Seeks Government Assistance

By Ibrahima Yakubu

Kaduna(Nigeria)– Unguwan-sarki-Baba, is an ancient village situated near Rigachukun town, in Igabi local government area of Kaduna state, north-west Nigeria.

The community has been in existence for over 200 years. It is said that some of their forefathers and others fought  both the first and second world wars as well as the Nigerian Civil war, commonly known as the Nigeria-  Biafran War (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970)

There are over 400 settlers who are predominantly Gwagyi by tribe and depend on farming as their preoccupation  at both the raining and dry season.

Lack of social amenities in the area has however been the greatest challenges facing the community.

Regardless of these shortcomings including lack of socio-Economics, political and other developments, the community identified education as a key towards changing the trend, hence the villagers took upon themselves to team up to construct 5 classrooms to educate their children for greater tomorrow.

A part from education, bad road is also one of the greatest challenges facing the inhabitants of the village.

The villagers’ means of transportation are motor-cycles, heavy trucks, bicycles animals,as well as wheel barrows to convey food stuff on the 20 kilometre road distance to the town.

Speaking with some journalists who visited the village, Danladi  Baba, age 63, a younger brother of the village head  said lack of school in the community forced  them to construct 5 classrooms with local sand, so as to fight against illiteracy among their children .

Danladi narrated how the village head gathered all the residents in the village to task every parent to make his own contribution either in cash or in kind to build the structure, ”every one contributed money along moral support in building this school, because we are tired of seeing our children always at home without going to school, we want them to be educated like the children living in the cities, so that they too can be educated and become leaders of tomorrow.

“Illiteracy is really a disease, and that is why we team-up in the community to fight it in this village. The 5 Room classes was constructed with local blocks which are made of sand, grass, stones mixed with other local construction materials in other to make it look strong, so that it can last for Hundreds of years.
”Immediately we finished constructing the building, we then wrote a letter to the District Head of Rigachukum, on the need to provide teachers for the newly constructed school, and since then, we never lack school teachers in the school.
“This is only school in this area that accommodates large number of students including others from the   neighboring communities .
We  still need more classes for children, toilet, library and a fence for the school, football pitch, first-Aid-Box, and other learning materials to assist our children”, Danladi stated.

He said though the community appreciates government for painting the school, they also want it to establish a secondary school to enable the pupils further their education.

  Amos Sarki is one of the youth leaders and a farmer in the village.  He told journalists that “the highest level of   education one acquires in the community is primary 6, and then go back to farm, ” and  even when we harvest our farm produce, we find it difficult to convey them to town”.

Amos spoke of the need for the state government to find means of introducing Entrepreneurship programs for  village youth, so as to engage them in creative activities instead of depending wholly on farming.
“Government at all levels should remember the youth residing in Ghetto and villages to prevent them migrating into cities”.

A woman leader in the village, Ladi Dauda, appealed to the Kaduna state government  to construct a borehole for the villagers, so as to check water borne diseases.

Ladi pointed out that due to the consumption of bad water, there have been cases of water related diseases among the children.

She also called on the state government to find means of reducing the high –rate of maternal maternity in the village by establishing more Primary Health Care Centers, PHC in villages across the 23 local Government area of kaduna state.

Wealthy individuals, Development partners, corporate organizations, Non-governmental organizations, Civil society organizations, and medical Doctors or Volunteers, She said, could be visiting the rural areas, so as the see the pitiable standard of living Nigerian villagers are experiencing.