The remote community of Gele-Gele, located in Edo’s Ovia North East Local Government Area, has demanded immediate government action to alleviate the severe teacher shortage in its two public schools.
Speaking at a news conference on Friday, community spokesperson Chief Macaulay Amaokosuwei-Gboluwei disclosed that because of a shortage of teaching staff, locals had turned to collective efforts to hire and compensate instructors.
“This situation is abnormal. Despite being an oil-producing community, we lack the most basic amenities required to function as one,” Amaokosuwei-Gboluwei lamented.
He criticised the previous administration for failing to improve the community’s dire situation, noting that even the road leading to the area remained in disrepair throughout the eight years tenure of the former Gov. Godwin Obaseki led administration.
“In our senior secondary school, there are only the principal and his vice. The junior secondary school has just the principal, while the primary school faces a similar situation.”
“Parents, who can afford it, have sent their children to Benin for better education. The rest contribute money to hire teachers for government schools,” he said.
In addition to the teacher shortage, he said that the schools’ poor infrastructure was another problem, with many pupils seated on the bare floors because there were no desks or chairs.
In addition to addressing the community’s more general issues, including as inadequate infrastructure and the long-abandoned Gele-Gele Road project, Amaokosuwei-Gboluwei encouraged Governor Monday Okpebholo to give hiring teaching staff top priority. The community’s chairman, Comrade Omaghomi Olu-Derimon, went on to emphasize Gele-Gele’s neglect in spite of the fact that it is home to one of West Africa’s greatest forest reserves.
“As Ijaw people in this community, we do not have a voice in the state legislature,” he stated.
He appealed to the governor to address their marginalisation and bring sustainable solutions to their challenges. The community leader, however, expressed hope that the new administration would reverse their plight and improve access to quality education and infrastructure for the people of Gele-Gele. (NAN)
