Onitsha School Where Environment Is Not Conducive For Learning

 

Written By Obiechina Ifunanya

 

Onitsha High School is one of the Government owned secondary schools located in Onitsha, Anambra state. Unfortunately, the school lacks good road that leads to the entrance of the buikding and also buses are found loading in front of the school gate thereby constituting nuisance not only to the students but the passers by too.
This does not paint a good image of a school as a worthy  citadel of learning. It further discourages people from enrolling in such schools.

Sanitation has to do with the keeping of the environment clean. This can be at home, in the school, at work or in the market. Sanitation is a way of controlling disease and disposal of refuse in the proper way. So allowing secondary schools to exist in dirty environment with environmental pollution of all kinds poses grave danger to the students.
Poor environmental conditions expose the students to one or more hazards which could affect their health.
Toxins released in poor environment pose serious threat to children/teenagers as they are more susceptible to environmental hazards.
For all these reasons, Government is called on to heed to the ‘Silent cries’ of these students as a general adage that says “Health is Wealth”!
Furthermore, if children are often exposed to environmental toxins as the case may be, or if schools are not safe or are poorly maintained, they may have an increased tendency to develop diseases like Air borne infections/diseases which is easier disseminated through the air or even Cancer later on in life because of their early exposure to poor environmental conditions.
What they are exposed to early on in their life may affect them throughout their entire life span.

It is a well known fact that earning environment plays a significant role in students’ success. Schools can potentially lift student achievement by improving their learning environments.
It is therefore pertinent that secondary schools should be made we make as envitonmentally conducive as possible, reducing or eliminating risks in order to ensure the health of pupils in such schools is safe.

Every child has a right to an environmentally safe and healthy learning environment which is clean and in good repair; Officials should be held accountable for the conditions of the school; and every child, parent and school employee has a “right to know” about environmental health issues and hazards in their school environment.
These rights are part of the ‘Guiding Principles’ of School.