The Oyo State Government has condemned a church that shares boundary with St. Paul’s Primary School, Odo Ona, Ibadan for encroaching the school’s land and building graves on the school’s land.
The Chairman of the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (OYOSUBEB), Dr. Nureni Aderemi Adeniran made this condemnation during a monitoring exercise of resumption in the state, considering the act as environmental pollution.
Appealing to the leadership of a church to consider the future of pupils, and stop leasing the school’s open land as burial sites, Adeniran reminded that the state government in September 2023 issued a directive against the erection of structures on open spaces within schools in the state, describing it as illegal.
The Oyo=OSUBEB dispatched teams across basic schools to monitor the resumption of students for the second term. At the school, located in Odo-Ona, Ibadan, the Chairman and his team noted that the church, apart from encroaching on the available space, built graves close to classrooms.
Adeniran said that, beyond the space left for the school, the presence of the cemetery on school premises is an issue the Board cannot live with.
He said, “It was gathered that the church that shares land space with the school just started encroaching on the school space, leasing the available land as a burial ground. Hence, it is unfair that the siting of the school and its pupils did not matter to the church, making the school and the burial site share a very close boundary. In one of the classrooms, a look through the window by the pupils would mean a look into the world of the dead because of the proximity. For a school that has a functional cemetery as its neighbour, that means witnessing burial rites has become a part of the learning process for the pupils.”
Adeniran, therefore, instructed the Education Secretary, Ibadan South-West, Mrs Morenike Adeniran and other Local Government Universal Basic Education Authority staff members to meet with the Vicar of the church.
While monitoring other schools within the Ibadan metropolis, Adeniran explained that the state government has warned headteachers against late resumption.
He, however, expressed satisfaction with the compliance of teachers in schools monitored, appealing to parents to release their children, as school activities have begun.
Speaking earlier at St. Paul’s Primary School, a Community leader, Rev. Julius Oguns said the land title bears the name of the school and not the church.
He appealed to the state government to wade into the matter, as pupils are being exposed to unwholesome views of the cemetery in a learning environment.
Schools monitored were, St. Paul’s Primary School, Gada-Apata, Odo ona, Ibadan; Christ the King Catholic School, Odo ona; Community Model Basic School, Elewura, St. John School 1& 2, Aremo; and Methodist Basic School I&II, Agodi, Ibadan among others.
