Teachers and parents of students in Junior Secondary School, Shadadi, Kuje Area Council, have called for the intervention of the FCT Minister over the deplorable state of the road linking the school.
Some of the parents and teachers who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Kuje, lamented that the road, Lanto road, was in a deplorable state.
A correspondent of NAN who visited the area, reports that potholes, ditches and culverts litter the road, leaving motorists with little space to manoeuvre their ways.
NAN reports that students from neighbouring Lanto village cross a river on daily basis to the school in Shadadi community because of the absence of a bridge.
Mr Mohammed Usman, a parent said the bad state of the road had resulted to high cost of transportation of students from Kuje town and neighbouring communities to the school.
He said that most motorcyclists hardly carry students to the community due to the bad road, adding that the few that ply the road charge between N150 and N200 to the school.
Usman said that the normal transportation cost on the less than three-kilometre distance from Kuje town was between N50 and N70.
He, therefore, called for urgent steps by relevant authorities to fix the road, to reduce the increasing rate of motorcycle accident involving students of the school.
Mrs Zainab Yachi, another parent, said she used to drop her children in the school before going to work but could not continue because of the deplorable state of the road.
She said that the three culverts on the road were already threatened and could collapse at any time, leaving the school children and residents of the community helpless.
“As you can see, the problem of this road is erosion and what is needed to save it is to construct drainage systems on both sides and fill the ravaged areas.
“Once water has its way, it will not erode the road and can be managed for some time again instead of making children to trek long distances to school every morning.
“Most times, it is difficult getting motorcycle to the school even when the children have their money to pay because of the deplorable state of the road,” she said.
A teacher in the school, who spoke on condition of Anonymity, told NAN that it had not been a good experience going to the school every morning because of the bad road.
He said that he had stopped using his car to school for over four months because of frequent breakdown resulting from the deplorable state of the road.
“Urgent steps must be taken to fix this road, otherwise a day will come when the culverts will collapse and school will become inaccessible.
“There have been reported cases of children falling from motorcycle on this road and we cannot stop them from using motorcycle since vehicles cannot get to the school.
“The school is about three years old; one would have expected that as the school was being established, efforts would have also been made to fix the road linking the school.
“We are appealing to the relevant authorities to take advantage of the coming dry season to fix the road in the interest of the students and teachers of the school,” he said.
Another teacher who also declined to be identified, decried the high cost of transportation, adding that the risk of going through the road was not in the interest of students and teachers in the school.
According to him, before the deplorable state of the road became worse, the transport fare was reasonable and that one did not have to wait a long time before getting motorcycle.
He said that most motorcyclists hardly agree go through the road because of its deplorable state.
“Since few of them agree to carry passengers to the area especially after rains, the price is always inflated,” he said.