Living in the slum does not automatically entitle its residents
the opportunities to get a formal education, but with the birth of
a floating school, the chances of being formally educated are
limitless.
The Makoko Floating School has been described by the London Design
Museum as a “prototype floating structure, built for the historic
water community of Makoko”.
Makoko, is a slum neighbourhood located in the Makoko‐Iwaya
community of Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, and has a population of
more than 100,000 residents.
Fishermen from the Egun-speaking populace settled in the slum
more than 100 years ago.
Established in the 18th Century primarily as a fishing village, the
area was not officially counted as part of the 2007 census and the
population today is estimated to be much higher.
It is a community that houses thousands of Ijaws, Ilaje’s and
Egun speaking populace, who are predominately fish farmers and who
also engage in trading activities. They lack basic amenities, lack
clean water, power supply, and are alien to anything called
development.
Not enough
Although Makoko has make shift schools, including French schools
built by individuals and foreign nationals to cater for the
educational needs of the children in the community, they are yet
largely insufficient to cater for the increasing number of children
in the area.
The near existence of formal educational institutions in the area
has been attributed as one of the causes of teenage pregnancy and
other forms of vices rampant in the area.
In 2012, however, Nigerian architect Kunle Adeyemi, with support
from Heinrich Boll Foundation and the United Nations, created a
three‐storey wooden floating structure to accommodate 100
elementary school children per time, who will find their way to the
school by boats.
Speaking on the stimulus for its creation, Adeyemi told a media
organisation that: “The desire to construct the school was born out
of curiosity after I visited the community. And my interest in the
coastal community, where despite the little income made daily by
the breadwinners, they have never stopped developing the
infrastructures in the community.”
Each of the floors in the school has a modern toilet and
electricity supply wires (powered by a solar system) built into the
school to provide lighting for the children, who may want to
involve in evening educational activities. The ground floor has an
open space which serves as a playground for children, and
sometimes, relaxation spot for Makoko residents on weekends.
As a pilot project created in 2012, the floating school has
taken an innovative approach to address the community’s social and
physical needs in view of the impact of climate change and a
rapidly urbanising African context. It is aimed at generating a
sustainable, ecological, alternative building system and urban
water culture for the teeming population of Africa’s coastal
regions.
This world class project, with beautiful architectural makeup is,
however, fast becoming a shadow of itself. Since 2012, the
structure has not been used and the chairs, tables, roofs and bulb
to lighten the classes are unavailable. A visit to the place showed
that the fishermen have made the structure a resting place during
their fishing expedition.
The sample floating structure, which has got international press
attention, won awards, including the 2013 AR+D awards for Emerging
Architecture, was shortlisted for the London Design Museum’s 2014
Design of the Year Award and has been nominated for the 2015
International Award for Public Art.
Two factors have yet continued to impede on the maximisation of the
school. On the one hand, Lagos state government is unwilling to
approve the structure as a school. This is because it has tagged
the slum as an illegal settlement. Thus it is almost impossible for
the government to give it the support it needs to function
properly.
Speaking for the Lagos state government in 2013, Commissioner
for Waterfront and Infrastructure Development, Prince Adesegun
Oniru, said the structure is illegal, and added that “it shouldn’t
be there, and we are trying to get rid of structures there.”
On the other hand, the community is yet to assume full custody of
the structure. Adeyemi has advised the community leaders to take
full control of the structure, get and mobilise the children to
come and learn, and teachers to rise up to teach.
A source told The Nation that the community is ready to kick-start
the teaching and learning of formal education, but are hopeful that
some good and noble persons can take it up from where Adeyemi ended
it.
Meanwhile, community vigilantes are in charge of the security of
the floating structure.