The Anambra State Government has warned school heads and proprietors in the state to desist from actions capable of endangering the lives of children entrusted in their care.
The state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Ngozi Chuma-Udeh gave the warning while addressing the Committee of Inquiry constituted by the state government, to investigate the case of a devastating injury on a two-year-old pupil of Blessed Wisdom Model School, Housing Estate, GRA Onitsha.
The state government had constituted the committee following a petition that a toddler sustained bodily injury at the school two weeks ago, without any first aid given, a situation which attracted the attention of the state government after the incident went viral.
As a result of the development, the state government, through the commissioner for education, ordered the shutting down of the school.
Chuma-Udeh, who spoke when the various parties in the matter appeared before the panel to testify on Friday, bemoaned the school’s management for the negligence and carelessness that resulted in the bodily injury on the two-year,-old child, who went to the school and came home battered.
She expressed shock at the report that for over three months, the management of the school could not even reach out to the parents to ascertain the welfare of the child, instead they resorted to mischievous presentations of all sorts of falsehood through the media, for the purpose of deceiving members of the public.
She said, “We are for justice, equity, and fairness, nothing can stop us from getting to the root of this matter.”
In their separate testimonies, the grandparents of the injured child, High Chief A.A. Anagu and his wife Oby, expressed displeasure at the unconcerned attitude of the school management towards the welfare of their grandchild, who was placed at the care of the school.
Anagu said they pass through sleepless nights following the excruciating pains being experienced by their grandchild, who went to school and came home with a broken humerus.
According to them, the class teacher of the toddler had informed them on the day of the injury, that a bookshelf fell on the child resulting in the broken humerus.
However, the management of the school, speaking through the Proprietor, Mrs Ugomma Nkamigbo, and the Class teacher, Ekpera Onyinye stated that they did all that was humanly possible to get the child treated.
According to the class teacher, the child was playing when she fell down and got her humerus broken.
The counsels to the complainants and the school’s management, respectively, opined that a show of remorse from the school’s management could have placated the injured family and paved the way for an amicable settlement of the matter.
