Children in Lom Ghe community, Gwer East local government area of Benue State, have been forced to learn in a collapsed school’s ruins, more than two decades after the building gave way, exposing them to unsafe, and undignified conditions.

According to civic technology platform Monitng, the only primary school serving the community — RCM Primary School Lom Ghe— has no proper building, forcing pupils to sit on bare ground in a makeshift thatch hut without desks or teaching materials.

“Dear Governor of Benue State Hyacinth Alia and Federal Ministry of Education,” the organisation stated in a letter.

“We recently visited RCM Primary School Lom Ghe in Mbayom, Gwer East LGA, Benue State. What we found was deeply distressing. Despite the vast sums invested in the education sector in Benue State from 2020 to 2025, this is the only school serving the entire community and it has no building.”

“The previous structure collapsed years ago, and since then, children have been forced to learn in a makeshift thatch hut, sitting on the bare ground with no desks, no walls, and no basic teaching materials.”

“For over two decades, the people of this community have cried out for help. Parents, teachers, and community leaders have written countless letters, held dialogue with officials, and endured the same recycled promises from politicians during every election season. Yet nothing has changed.

"The school remains in ruins, and the future of these children continues to be sacrificed.”

“This chronic neglect is not just a failure of infrastructure it’s a crisis of human development. Many children have been pushed out of school to work on farms.

 Young girls are being forced into early marriages. Others have been sent to distant cities to work as house helps not because their families reject the value of education, but because they’ve been denied access to it.”

“It is unacceptable that, in a time of such substantial investment in education, children are still learning in these undignified and unsafe conditions. This is not just a violation of their right to education, it is a stain on our collective conscience.” 

Monitng has urged the government to take immediate and concrete steps to rebuild the school and provide safe learning conditions for the community’s children.