The second term of the 2017/2018 session is almost half way. But for over 3,000 children in Benue State, school is not in the picture.
They are among about the 100,000 Internally-Displaced Persons (IDPs) taking refuge in seven camps across the state, following the sacking of their communities in Guma and Logo Local Government Areas by Fulani herdsmen last month.
Investigations revealed that some of the children who lost their parents in the attacks are with their relations.
Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School in Daudu, Guma is one of the IDP camps. It is serving as a temporary home for the displaced people.
When The Nation visited the school, many of the school-aged children were seen playing games. Some converted the classrooms into a football field, in manner that suggested they were oblivious to the irony of the situation and uncertainty it posed for their future.
Some of the children who were not playing had found their way into Daudu Town to beg for food.
Apart from the children in the IDP camp missing school, the conversion of the LGEA Primary School into a temporary camp has denied over 200 children in Daudu settlement primary education.
To the children, education has assumed a secondary importance with the more pressing challenge being survival. Some of the children looked malnourished which suggested they were not well fed. It was observed that the camp lacked basic amenities, such as water, toiletries and medical services, yet the number of IDPs kept increasing within the five hours this reporter spent in the camp last Friday.
Mrs Kwadoo Ugema, a mother of three, aged five, nine and 14, told The Nation that she was worried about her children’s future, especially their education.
While their education was important, she said she was more preoccupied with how to feed them.
“You are asking me about the education of my three children? I expected you to ask me whether they have eaten today, “she said.
She added: “One must remain alive to go to school. There is so much hunger in the camp. My children hardly get three square meals. I hope they will have better education outside the IDPs camp. As for now, it is survival of the fittest.
A five-year-old member of the camp, Terwase Uma, said before the attacks, he was a pupil of LGEA Primary School, Umenger, in Guma.
Uma said his parents were killed when the marauders attacked their home. Now he is under the care of his uncle.
He said there was no hope of going to school again except for divine intervention, though he wished to further his education.
School may be the last thing on seven-year-old Tersoo Anande’s mind. A victim of the attack from Umenger village, he said his uncle was killed leaving behind three children.
“It is my responsibility to cater for children whom my uncle died and left behind although I don’t know when normalcy would return to my village,” said Anande.
Moses Terna was teaching at LGEA Primary School, Kasseyol, Guma before the attacks forced him to take refuge in Daudu.
He said he was pained that they had to abandon class because of insecurity.
He, however, said he had started giving free lessons to some in the camp.
Nevertheless, Terna lamented the difficulties in teaching, saying the camp was over populated and there were distractions.
“I have no learning materials and the number of children and victims of the crisis in camps does not give room for conducive teaching and learning,” Terna said.
He appealed to the government to consider the plight of the pupils and make temporary arrangement for their educational need.
A camp official, who pleaded not to be named, said the children might be back in school within one month as Governor Samuel Ortom had directed that those in camp should leave in one month for home.
“Within one month, there is hope that the crisis would be over and the IDPs return home,” he said, adding that some individuals had been offering free lessons to the children.
The State Emergency Mangement Agency (SEMA) Executive Secretary, Emmanuel Shior, also said apart from free classes on camp, some of the children had joined other primary schools within the camp’s vicinity.
He said a Catholic priest on the camp was also training the young ones pending when they would return home.
When asked what the government was doing to address the problem, the Information Officer, Benue State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Erdoo Sar, said the Executive Chairman of the board, Dr Philip Tachin, had directed that a census of IDPs be taken, especially those who are supposed to be in school for an intervention she did not reveal.
She said: “The chairman of the Board has mandated some staff members to take the census of all pupils in camp for intervention. The intervention will cover primary, secondary and those due for Joint Admissions Matriculation Board (JAMB) so that the board will support them.”
Ortom has called on the Federal Government and international communities to donate relief materials to the IDPs, saying that the state was stretched beyond its limit. - The Nation
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