In Khana LGA, where leaking roofs meet harsh weather, the next generation learns on bare floors – and leaders warn a future is being lost.
The future of young talent in Ogoniland is learning how to sit on a window.
In Beeri High School and in Government Secondary Schools in Luumene, Luawii, and Buako in Khana Local Government Area, classrooms have collapsed. Roofs are torn off, walls are cracked, desks are broken, and weeds have taken over compounds that should be safe for learning.
This is where Ogoni’s next generation is supposed to dream and build a future.
When our correspondent visited schools across Khana, what he saw was distressing. Children sitting on bare floors and window frames. Others studying in open spaces under scorching sun and heavy rain because their classrooms can no longer protect them from the weather.
In many of the schools, there were no teachers on site. Only a few students loitering around buildings that have become climate traps – too hot when it is sunny, flooded when it rains.
For a region known for bright and resilient young people, the cost is clear. Many children have dropped out. Others trek long distances to other communities just to find a better classroom. Parents say it is draining them and exposing their children to danger.
Teachers who stayed back say it hurts to watch.
“The present school condition is nothing to write home about. There is total lack of conducive environment for teaching. Every building in the school is either abandoned or dilapidated except a corner that the principal is using as his office. There are lack of desks and chairs, students either stand or sit on the window while learning,” a teacher told Hello ICON Magazine.
“You can see how busy the place is, see how dilapidated the buildings are. We have made several appeals and it seems not to be working out. What we are seeing here is all over the local government. Go to other schools, it is the same thing all over. We are actually suffering in this place,” another teacher said.
Another teacher simply pointed at a block and said, “You can see there are no desks, the roof is off, this building is good as moribund.”
Beyond the buildings, what worries community leaders is what this means for the future of young talent.
If talent grows in the classroom, then Ogoniland’s classrooms are telling its children they have been forgotten. In a region already battling environmental degradation, leaders say neglecting education means robbing young people of the very skills they need to build climate resilience and sustainable livelihoods.
“I am calling on all lovers of education to come to the aid of the school especially the executive chairman of Khana local government Dr Thomas Bariere, the state Governor Siminalayi Fubara, international and national NGOs,” a community leader said.
“I really want to draw the attention of those in authority to see what they can do to alleviate some of the challenges that secondary and primary education are facing in the state,” he added.
The school heads are overwhelmed too.
“We have three schools here, senior and junior Government Secondary School Luawii and UBE Primary School Luawii, the three schools are in one small cubicle. There are lots of inconveniences here, the children from the primary school making a lot of noise. There is no effort, we are just looking forward to the government because we have written several letters but no response,” a principal who did not want his name mentioned said.
As of press time, the Rivers State Ministry of Education and the Khana Local Government Council have not responded to inquiries about the state of schools in Ogoniland.
But every morning in Beeri, Luumene and Luawii, the children still show up. They sit on floors. They learn under leaking roofs. They hold on to a talent that has nowhere to grow.
The question for Rivers State is not just when the roofs will be fixed, but how much young talent will be lost – to both educational neglect and a changing climate – before they are.
