Chinto, Pampaso get new classroom blocks
Two rural communities in the Nsawam Adoagyiri Municipality in the Eastern Region have each been provided with a three-unit classroom block with ancillaries.
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The pupils and their parents could not hide their joy as they thronged the schools to witness the inauguration of both facilities at separate functions at Chinto and Pampaso.
The construction of the two-classroom blocks was funded by Blueskies Foundation, a subsidiary of Blue Skies Company Limited, with assistance from Waitrose Foundation and Albert Heign Foundation.
Teachers of the beneficiary schools described the facilities as timely, since pupils of Chinto Basic School used to have lessons under trees, enduring the vagaries of the weather, while pupils of Pampaso had to trek for over three miles before getting to school.
Handover
At the ceremony to hand over the facilities to the Nsawam Adoagyiri Education Directorate, the Manager of Blue Skies Foundation, Mr Alistair Djimatey Derby, called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to reintroduce Agricultural Science into the school curriculum as a core subject to resurrect the interest of the youth in agriculture.
He expressed worry that national commitment towards agriculture in the country was not very encouraging, since a number of the youth hardly saw the need to venture into the sector.
"We must be thinking about mechanising our agriculture to make farming attractive to the youth of today so that the sector will be sustained. If we are a country hoping to feed ourselves, then we need to reintroduce Agricultural Science as a core subject and not as part of integrated science," he said.
Mr Derby also entreated members of the communities to attach a sense of ownership to the facilities to ensure their proper maintenance for the benefit of the next generation, stressing that poor maintenance culture was a bad habit that Ghanaians must eschew.
The Municipal Education Director for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Mrs Esther Amma Bossman, said the provision of additional classrooms would expand access to education for children in the communities and boost their academic performance.
She gave an assurance that her outfit would ensure teachers would adhere to the GES ban on using agricultural-related activities to punish pupils for wrongdoing. That, she said, would let the pupils see agriculture as a business but not as punishment.
Appreciation
The Chief of Chinto, Nana Yaw Fianko III, expressed appreciation to Blue Skies Foundation for the relief offered the community and entreated parents who took their children out of the school because they were studying under trees to bring them back, since a new classroom block had been provided.
The Headmistress of the Chinto Basic School, Ms Linda Amihere, appealed for more assistance from organisations and the government in the provision of washrooms and furniture for the school.