Governor Peter Mbah’s Smart Green School initiative was marketed as a transformative reset for basic education in Enugu State. The promise: one technologically advanced primary school in each of the state’s 260 wards, equipped with digital tools, solar power, and modern learning infrastructure.
What has emerged, however, raises serious questions about priorities, value for money, and the fundamental logic of the policy itself.
Despite repeated assurances from the state government, many of the so-called smart schools remain unfinished or non-functional. This is not merely speculation or opposition rhetoric.
In Isi-Uzo Local Government Area, the state government itself demolished a smart school structure in Mbu community after integrity tests revealed it was structurally unsafe. Governor Mbah, responding to the demolition, was quoted by The Guardian stating: “We will not compromise standards. Any contractor that delivers substandard work will be shown the way out.”
While the statement projects firmness, it is also an implicit admission that public funds were released for a project so poorly executed that it required complete demolition. This raises an uncomfortable question: how many other smart schools across the state are standing but structurally compromised?
Education advocate and public commentator Okwuluora has been particularly pointed in his assessment of the initiative. In a July 2025 critique, he described it as “a deceitful scam sold with technology buzzwords but delivered as glorified empty buildings.” He further observed that “outside a few locations, what is called a smart school looks more like a locked kiosk than an education facility.”
These are not anonymous allegations. They represent documented observations from named critics who have visited multiple sites across the state.
Beyond execution failures lies a more fundamental problem: the concept itself appears to defy educational logic and sound resource allocation.
Why is Enugu investing massive resources into high-tech primary schools while:
- Most state secondary schools lack functional computer labs
- Public universities and colleges struggle with obsolete ICT infrastructure
- Many existing classrooms still lack clean water, toilets, desks, or even functional roofs
- Students learn in overcrowded conditions without meals or basic welfare support
Education experts consistently argue that technology-heavy interventions deliver marginal benefits at the primary level, particularly in contexts where foundational needs, literacy support, nutrition, and basic sanitation remain unmet. A child who is hungry, dehydrated, or learning in an unsafe environment cannot meaningfully benefit from tablets or smart boards.
For a fraction of the cost required to build 260 new structures, the state government could have:
- Installed functional computer labs across all public secondary schools
- Modernized ICT facilities in state universities and colleges of education
- Rehabilitated thousands of existing classrooms
- Provided clean water, functional toilets, and basic meals during school hours
These interventions would have delivered broader reach, faster impact, and more measurable outcomes across the education system.
To date, there is no comprehensive public audit or published data showing:
- The total cost per smart school unit
- How many schools are fully completed and operationally functional
- Which contractors were awarded contracts and the amounts paid
- Actual student enrollment and learning outcomes in completed facilities
For a project that commands such significant political attention and public expenditure, this absence of transparency is conspicuous.
The Smart Green School initiative increasingly appears less like a coherent solution to Enugu’s education challenges and more like a prestige project designed primarily for media consumption. When schools are demolished for structural defects, when the majority remain unused or incomplete, and when basic needs across secondary and tertiary education continue to be neglected, the underlying policy choice becomes difficult to defend on educational or fiscal grounds.
Technology alone does not fix education. Sound governance, clear prioritization, and institutional honesty do.
Until the state provides verifiable data, independent audits, and demonstrable evidence of real learning outcomes, Enugu’s Smart Schools will remain what an increasing number of observers describe them as: big on branding, thin on results, and costly in terms of missed opportunities.
