Community urges government to take over school
The people of Kokobibiam near Otwebediadua in the Suhum Municipality have appealed to the Government and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to take over their community school which is on the verge of collapse.
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The school, which was built seven years ago by the community to enable the children access education, currently has pupils from class one to five, and a population of about 150 pupils but due to management challenges, the population of the school has dropped to less than 40 children with only one teacher.
This came to light when the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the community last week.
Challenges
Mr David Lawer Terkper, a resident of Kokobibiam, said the school was built by the community seven years ago with mud bricks but when they started having challenges with its management, they appealed to the government, through the Suhum Municipal Director of GES, to take over its administration.
He also said the director sent some officials to inspect the school and they advised the community to improve the school block before GES could take over.
Mr Terkper said for this reason, Mr Fredrick Opare Ansah, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, donated 20 bags of cement and later, Mr Julius Debrah, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, also donated 30 bags of cement and one and half packets of roofing sheets to the community for the rehabilitation of the school.
Rehabilitation
He added that after the rehabilitation, the education directorate was informed but they were yet to inspect the building.
Mr Emmanuel Nartey, an opinion leader in the community, said as a result of the government’s delay in taking over the school, the community could not pay the teachers so they all left the school. Some parents had, therefore, withdrawn their children and sent them to schools at Otwebediadua and Suhum.
He also said now, only the headteacher was managing the few children left in the school and that most of the schoolchildren were those who could not walk to Otwebediadua everyday.
He expressed the belief that if the government took over the school and posted teachers there, the community would be a better place.
He, therefore, appealed to the government and the Ghana Education Service to come to the aid of the community.
Credit: GNA
