Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A major disaster was averted on Thursday, July 30, 2026, when approximately 300 senior students of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Janbulo, in Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State, narrowly escaped death after the staircase leading to their upstairs classrooms collapsed during lesson hours. The incident occurred at about 1:00 p.m. while students were attending classes in two upstairs classrooms, leaving them trapped until teachers organised their evacuation.
The school principal, Hajiya Jamila Mustafa Mai Nasara, said staff members responded immediately after hearing cries for help from the affected building. "We heard shouting from the one-storey building where about 300 students were taking lessons in two upstairs classrooms. We rushed to the area and discovered that the staircase had collapsed," she said. According to the principal, teachers quickly sourced a ladder and used it to safely evacuate all the students from the building. "Members of staff immediately brought a ladder, which was used to safely evacuate all the trapped students. Thankfully, no lives were lost and no student sustained any injury during the incident," she added.
Mai Nasara said the school promptly notified the Kano State Secondary Schools Management Board by telephone before submitting a comprehensive report detailing the incident and the condition of the affected structure. She described the development as a major setback for the school, noting that the damaged classrooms serve a significant number of science students. "It is very sad. We solely depend on these upstairs classrooms because they accommodate almost 30 per cent of our science students," she said.
The principal explained that the school had already been struggling with an acute shortage of classrooms, making it impossible to maintain the recommended class size of 40 students. "More than 120 students are currently accommodated in each classroom, and with the affected block now unusable, the situation has become even more difficult," she said. Mai Nasara disclosed that GGSS Janbulo currently has only eight classrooms and one laboratory, adding that with the affected block out of use, only four classrooms remain available for teaching. "Some classrooms now accommodate more than 130 students, making the learning environment severely overcrowded," she said.
She further revealed that the affected building was constructed about 16 years ago and had shown signs of deterioration over the years. "The roof of the two upstairs classrooms had been leaking for the past four years before it was recently repaired, but the entire block still requires total renovation," the principal said. She appealed to the Kano State Government to urgently reconstruct the collapsed staircase before schools resume for the new academic session in September. "Thankfully, schools are about to close for the third-term vacation and are expected to resume in September. We hope the government will repair the staircase before resumption. Otherwise, we may have no option but to ask some students to remain at home because we do not have enough classrooms to accommodate them," she said.
The incident has renewed concerns over the condition of public school infrastructure in Kano State. So far, the Kano State Ministry of Education has not issued any statement pertaining to the incident. The collapse of the staircase at GGSS Janbulo is emblematic of a deeper crisis in Nigeria's education sector, where years of underfunding, neglect, and inadequate maintenance have turned many public schools into death traps. The fact that 300 students were trapped in a building with a deteriorating staircase, and that the school had only eight classrooms for what appears to be a much larger student population, speaks volumes about the systemic failures that have been allowed to fester. While the quick thinking of the teachers and the use of a ladder averted a tragedy, the underlying issues remain unaddressed.
The principal's appeal to the government to repair the staircase before September is a plea that should not go unanswered. But beyond repairing a single staircase, what is needed is a comprehensive overhaul of the state's education infrastructure, with a focus on safety, capacity, and quality. The overcrowding at GGSS Janbulo—with over 120 students per classroom—is not just an inconvenience; it is a violation of basic educational standards and a recipe for disaster. The government's silence on the incident, as reported, is deafening. The people of Kano deserve to know what steps will be taken to prevent a similar, potentially fatal, occurrence in the future. The narrow escape of these 300 students should be a wake-up call, not just for Kano, but for the entire country.
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