Delta State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education has said that the ministry is not unaware of the shortage of tables and chairs in public primary and secondary schools in the state.

A statement from the office of the commissioner in the ministry, who described the situation as pathetic and unacceptable, appealed to those affected to bear with the State Government as everything possible is being done to ameliorate the situation.

The statement however, put the sorry state of infrastructure in schools squarely on the shoulders of the people of the communities where schools are located as they are responsible for the destruction of items provided in the schools by the state government.

According to the statement released Thursday in Asaba, the time for inhabitants of communities where schools are located to take possession of the schools by protecting the infrastructures inside the schools is now.

The statement wondered how chairs, tables, writing boards, doors, windows, protectors and even walls are vandalised by people in the communities who are supposed to protect them, noting that no school is built and opened without adequate chairs and tables but the present situation was necessitated by the devilish acts of some people in the communities.

With the recent completion of the need assessment of all schools in the state, the state government has awarded contacts for the supply of chairs and tables to some schools in Delta North, Delta South, Delta Central, Warri Federal Constituency and State Capital Territory, adding that it will not go round all schools because they cannot all be accommodated at the same time, the statement added.