TheCable

The Jisomosun/Lujomu comprehensive high school Ondo west was an eyesore — despite a N15 million budgetary provision renovation — until BudgIT Tracka intervened. 

But even the renovation works did not really matter at the end of the day as the classrooms have since collapsed.

On BudgIT’s first visit to the school, it was apparent how the environment blights both students and teachers in the school.

Most pupils have dropped out of school as the learning conditions became tougher by the day.

The entire school has three blocks of the classrooms, and the fourth block serves as the administrative building with four rooms which for the staff.

Mid-June 2016, BudgIT project tracking officer (PTO) had visited the community for the first time to observe the implementation of the Lujomu school renovation, one of the FG 2016  zonal intervention projects in Ondo state. Cost: N15 million.

The PTO held a meeting with the school administrators to inform them about the budgetary provision and encourage them to follow up on the project to ensure the school is revamped.

The BudgIT officer also shared printed simplified budget documents and names and contact details of the state’s representatives in the national assembly to foster engagements.

Subsequently, BudgIT revisited the school and held meetings with the PTA and the school personnel to discuss civic education and the importance of being involved in governance to make public officials accountable. This meeting propelled the school head to engage the Ondo east/west representative, Akinlaja Joseoh, via a letter to inform him about the poor condition of Lujomu School and ask what he can do in his capacity to ensure the renovation project is accomplished.

BudgIT observed ongoing work at the school by March 2017 and continued to monitor the project closely to ensure execution as specified in the budget. Although the budget line item states the renovation of one block of six classrooms with headmaster’s office at Jisomosun/Lujomu Comprehensive High School, only four classrooms were renovated. BudgIT officer approached the site engineer working on the project, who attributed the shortfall to insufficient funding from the ministry.

Shockingly, this project was not only under-implemented but also poorly executed. Barely three months after the renovation work was completed on the four classrooms,  the most disheartening consequence of subpar governance is seen as one of the two old classrooms caved in disrupting school activities. Luckily, no one was injured in the horrifying accident.

However, it led to several questions concerning the quality of the products used for the renovation, how much was released by the ministry of education and who should be held responsible for reducing the numbers of classrooms built? This  setback should be a wake-up call on the devastating effects of poor governance, and citizens must exert their rights to demand excellence in the execution of public projects around them. 

This material was generated by BudgIT.