3 Special schools to close down for lack of funds
Three state-funded special schools in two regions have been plunged into debt resulting from the government’s failure to release feeding grants to them.
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Currently, the schools — Twin-City Special School and the Sekondi School for the Deaf, both in the Western Region, and the Akuapem Mampong Demonstration School for the Deaf in the Eastern Region — owe food and other suppliers a total of GH¢128,000.
The Twin-City Special School and the Sekondi School for the Deaf owe GH¢70,000 in food supplies.
The two schools, with a total enrolment of 436, have been surviving on the benevolence of corporate bodies, religious organisations and individuals, but the caregivers said the support had not been coming as expected.
Debt profile
The Sekondi School for the Deaf owed food suppliers GH¢ 50,000 while Twin-City Special School owed GH¢20,000.
That aside, facilities available to the teaching and non-teaching staff are in a deplorable state, making living conditions unhealthy and unattractive.
The headmaster of the Sekondi School for the Deaf, Mr Kofi Nti Frimpong, sleeps on a bunk bed with a student mattress and a mosquito net in the porch of the Audio Assessment Centre due to lack of accommodation.
There is also overcrowding in the dormitory as boys and girls share a common facility. This is contrary to the regulation of the Ghana Education Service (GES), which requires that at least, there should be a distance of 100 meters between the dormitories of boys and girls.
According to Mr Frimpong, sometimes some of the boys took advantage of the situation and engaged in promiscuous behaviour. To check the problem, the caregivers had to constantly stay awake during the night to ensure that the boys did not unleash their plans on the girls.
He described the situation as critical, which required urgent attention from the government to ensure the smooth running of the schools.
Mr Frimpong said when the school reopened this term, they had to delay admitting new students because there were no funds to run the school, saying “the term’s feeding and administration grants have not been paid.”
“For the last term, only 50 per cent of the statutory grant was paid,” he added.
At the Twin-City Special School, the head teacher, Mrs Elizabeth Ameworwor, said the situation was no different from that of the School for the Deaf.
She stated: “Food supply is on credit; no funding for administration and maintenance of vehicles; inadequate staff accommodation for teaching and non-teaching staff; inadequate classrooms.”
When the Daily Graphic visited the school, facilities for the head teacher, girls’ dormitory and staff accommodation in structures which had been under construction since 1992 were yet to be completed.
The contractors for the headteacher’s bungalow, the staff accommodation and dining hall were not on site.
In the case of the Demonstration School for the Deaf at Mampong, Akuapem, the school has been re-opened for five weeks, but no feeding grant has been released to the management.
From September 2013 to date, suppliers have been supplying food items to the school on credit amounting to GH¢58,000.
This has compelled suppliers to suspend their supplies to the school.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the headmistress, Mrs Regina Danquah, said ,“since last year, we only receive our feeding fee when it is one week or two weeks to vacation; we borrow from our suppliers and they have refused us; we have no other choice than to close down.”
Challenges
Mrs Danquah said the school had some challenges that were affecting its management.
She said the school had no administration block, dormitories were inadequate and no assembly hall for social gathering.
Currently, she said, one of the classrooms had been converted into an office for the secretary and some staff members of the school, adding that all official meetings were held in the dining hall.