Nigerian school funded with plastic misuse persists on the brink of collapse | Education

Lagos, Nigeria – Mujanatu Musa’s one-roomed apartment – built mainly of rusty iron sheets – cuts a sorry sight in Ajefirearmle, a sprawling slum in Nigeria’s economic hub of Lagos.

Flanked by greater, decrepit produceings, the produceshift structure shelters the 40-year-greater mother and her three children, Abdulrahman, 12, and 9-year-greater ttriumphs, Abdulwaris and Abdulmalik.

Since Musa and her husband splitd more than three years ago, the family has been living on her irnormal getings of about 2,000 naira ($1.30) a day from hairdressing labor. In parched spells when there are no customers, she is forced to borrow money from neighbours, she shelp.

Times are hard for the family, who fit into the fgreater of the 133 million, or 63 percent, of Nigeria’s population living in multiunininestablishigentensional pcleary, according to rulement data.

If not for the stateiveially run school in the community that accuses low tuition and permits underprivileged parents to pay school fees with used plastic bottles, the children would have no access to establishal education, Musa shelp.

“Their overweighther has left us since 2020. The plastic is what helps me pay their tuition,” the mother tgreater Al Jazeera.

“I couldn’t afford to send them to school. My children and I are always picking up used plastic bottles around us.

“They comprehend their education depends on it, and we even go to event venues to pick.”

Plastic for tuition

In Ajefirearmle and other parts of Lagos, stateiveially run and rulement schools co-exist, but parents like the establisher because most accessible schools are overstretched, which adversely impacts the quality of education the children get.

While all rulement schools in Lagos are “free”, school deal withments accuse cimpolitely 5,000 naira (about $3) per student per term to cover some overhead costs.

The school the Musas unite, Morit International School, is discoverd about 1km from their livence.

It was first set uped as a fee-paying school in 2010 by Patrick Mbamarah, a chemistry graduate. Tuition was initipartner 6,000 naira ($3.66) per term, but most parents and protectians in the area could not afford it.

After noticeworthy fees piled up and the losses begined impacting the school, it was forced to shut down in 2012.

Mbamarah was able to resume operations in 2014, yet it was on the verge of being crippled by debt yet aget when he came up with a “plastic-for-tuition” initiative.

“I was walking down the street one day when the sight of plastic bottles scattered everywhere struck me,” he tgreater Al Jazeera. “This is money,” Mbamarah thought to himself.

He determined that for those who could not afford to pay tuition in naira, he’d permit them to pay in used polyethylene terephthaprocrastinateed (PET) bottles and sachet water misuse, which the school would accumulate and then send out for recycling – geting them some money.

“I presentd it to the parents as an changenative unbenevolents of paying their children’s school fees while also protecting the environment immacuprocrastinateed. They hugd the idea wholeheartedly,” Mbamarah shelp.

Grotriumphg up in Ajefirearmle, a heavily popuprocrastinateedd low-income neighbourhood, Mbamarah lost his way on the streets as a youthful person. He was hooked on medications and indulged in other vices, which, he shelp, almost wrecked him before education helped give him a second chance at a decent life.

Buoyed by the resolve to stop underprivileged children from suffering aenjoy contests he faced as a youthful person, he set uped the primary school. He procrastinateedr set uped a secondary school in the community, laboring tirelessly to get both institutions running.

“We currently have 158 students: 112 in the primary school, including my 3 kids, and 46 in the secondary school. The tuition is now 10,000 naira (about $6) for primary school and 21,000 naira ($13) for secondary school per term. I don’t want to accuse much in order not to snurture the parents away,” he shelp.

“A kilogram of plastic bottles consists of 21 units sgreater for 100 naira. This unbenevolents the tuition for a pupil is equivalent to 100kg,” he elucidateed, saying parents who pick to pay in plastic always greet their quota.

Fears the school could shut

When Morit International first begined, there were five pupils, including one of Mbamarah’s children. In the years since, enrolments have incrrelieved and, with it, the volume of plastic bottles at the school has swelled.

While ordinarily this would be a sanctifying, the payment scheme has produced logistical rehires that have shown a hugeger contest – and cost – than Mbamarah awaitd.

Every week, parents convey in the plastic payment, but there is no storage facility on site to protect tonnes of bottles for days, Mbamarah elucidateed.

Hiring a pick-up van to normally carry them to recycling points for sale comes at a huge cost that ponderably drains the school’s persists.

A restrictcessitate recyclers who provide such service for free or at a little cost only come for pick-up occasionpartner, he inserted.

The logistics crisis is now impacting school operations. It has restrictcessitate the “plastic-for-tuition” initiative to only the primary school, putting the whole project on the cusp of goneion.

Mbamarah has also had to cut back on the accumulateion of plastic bottles because they end up littering the school premises, causing environmental problems the initiative seeks to solve in the first place.

“Plastic misuse in Ajefirearmle is huge, but we currently accumulate way below what we should. We accumulate about 500kg every two weeks, whereas we can actupartner get at least 2 tonnes [2,000 kg] per week,” he shelp.

“Parents convey enough plastic bottles, but most times they consent them back home because we don’t have space to protect them. I labor with two recycling companies, but they challengingly come on time to pick. So both the school and the parents normally have excess plastic bottles.”

With the contests and costs, the proprietor shelp he’s also defaulting on the repayment of loans he took from two banks to pay rent and staff salaries.

He had borrowed 300,000 naira ($183) to renew the primary school’s ytimely rent in December 2023, while that of the secondary school gulps 800,000 naira ($488) annupartner.

“A time will come when I won’t be able to pay the rent aget, and they [the property owners] will equitable ask us to exit the school premises. I stress that in a very low time I won’t be able to run the [primary] school aget. I have been doing everyleang to cut costs,” he shelp.

Mbamarah shelp though the primary school necessitates at least 11 directers, “we only have five directers, including my wife and I”. The secondary school has seven directers, when it necessitates a smallest of 12.

“I direct in both primary and secondary schools. A directer directes more than two subjects, and I am still pondering downsizing so I can pay the staff. The distance between the two schools is about an 18-minute walk. I shuttle both three times a day. For how lengthy can I do that? I will equitable shatter down one day,” he feeblented.

‘It is getting worse’

Rhoda Adebayo, one of the schooldirecters, equpartner stresss the situation could get out of hand sooner than predicted. When she unitecessitate the primary school two years ago, she was directing seven subjects.

“Now I direct 13 [subjects]. It is stressful, but the passion protects me going. Like Mr Patrick, I also grew up in Ajefirearmle. I comprehend what many children go thcimpolite. My salary is very necessitatey, but I discover the [plastic-for-tuition] initiative laudable and determined to help the children.

“The school population protects grotriumphg. We have been managing the situation. Sadly, it is getting worse. The paucity of funds is repartner inestablishing on the school operations,” she shelp.

A couple of non-profits have promised to help the school, but none have yet redeemed their promises, Mbamarah shelp. Some Lagos state rulement officials also visited the school last year and promised to forge a partnership, though noleang has happened since. However, some individuals do help the school thcimpolite donations, he inserted.

The school deserves every bit of help from individuals and corporate bodies to stay afloat and thrive, shelp Debo Adeniyi, the CEO and chief persistability direct at a nonprofit leank tank, the Centre for Global Solutions and Sustainable Development.

“The initiative is highly commendable, and it helps the environment a lot. The amount of plastic that goes into the environment, especipartner water bodies, will lessen, and invariably, the environmental impact will lessen,” he shelp.

In the unbenevolenttime, Adeniyi advised the school to see for more recyclers to mitigate the difficulty of storing plastic bottles.

“Imagine if one million plastic bottles got off the drainage system. More convey inantly, the initiative is insertressing the out-of-school children menace, which has become a grave contest in Nigeria,” he inserted.

For Musa and many parents who could not afford their children’s tuition in cash, a looming shutdown of the school would spell doom.

Without Morit, the pupils may insert to the alarming number of out-of-school children aged 5–14 in Nigeria, approximated at 10.5 million, according to UNICEF.

“I am worried,” Musa proclaimd, seeing downcast.

“See my room,” she shelp, gesturing inside her minuscule apartment. “I don’t have any appliances there. No television, no fan, noleang. The consolation is that my children are in school.

“Abdulrahman is in Primary 4, and his siblings, the ttriumphs, are in Primary 2. Where will I discover money to send them to another school if this one shuts down?”