in Ilorin

No fewer than 100 residents of Ijagbo town in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State have been rendered homeless as rainstorm wreaked havoc on the community.

The incident, according to THISDAY investigations, happened last Monday  in the town.

It was learnt that the rainstorm, which struck around 4 p.m. last Monday, tore off roofs and exposed classrooms to the elements, damaging essential learning materials and disrupting academic activities.

During the incident, educational institutions, residential houses and market stalls were destroyed with their roofs blown away and other property damaged.

At the Ansar Deen College, Ijagbo, rainstorm destroyed more than 10 classrooms thereby leaving students and teachers stranded.

A visit to the town yesterday by THISDAY showed that some residents of the community are still counting the losses occasioned by the heavy rainstorm in the town.

Reacting to the development, the school principals, Mr. Olaniyi Musbaudeen and Mrs. Saheed A.M., appealed to the state Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, for immediate intervention to restore the damaged infrastructure.

Musbaudeen said: “We are deeply saddened by this disaster. The destruction of these classrooms poses a serious threat to our students’ education.

“We urgently need the government’s support to rebuild.

“We also appeal to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Prince Lateef Fagbemi(SAN), to support the schools and residents affected by the rainstorm in the town.”

Meanwhile, Governor Abdulrazaq yesterday inspected the multi-storey prototype primary school in Adeta, Ilorin,  calling it another step to upgrade public school infrastructure along with the huge investments in the quality of teaching in the schools.

“The administration is committed to investing more in the education sector this fiscal year to bridge the gaps in school infrastructure and digital literacy,” he told journalists on the sideline of the inspection at Adeta.

He said the government’s KwaraLEARN programme is a watershed for teachers and public school pupils in the state as it builds learning processes around technology and best practices.

According to him, “We are going to focus heavily on education and healthcare this year. Those are the major challenges that we have to overcome.

“With what we have in the KwaraLEARN programme through which we put digital devices in every classroom, we are intentionally doing what we have to do to make sure we bridge some gaps.”

He said: “We have seen significant changes. As a result of the progress that we have made, many parents are taking their wards from private establishments to government schools because they have seen the change.

“This has seen an increase in enrollment. We are also reducing out-of-school children.

“This is a prototype of KwaraLEARN School. This is called a prototype in the sense that we have to rethink how we design and build our schools and learning environment. It is the way we want to build our schools. This is just the beginning.

“Parents are taking advantage of KwaraLEARN to enrol their children in public schools. By and large, we have seen an upturn in enrollment in our schools, and the learning outcomes are exceedingly very good.”