Pupils sit on floor for lack of furniture
Pupils of Abesu D/A Basic School at Abesu Nsesereso in the Sunyani West District in the Brong Ahafo Region sit on the floor during class hours for lack of furniture in their classrooms.
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Even though the school has a six-classroom block with a headmaster’s office and a toilet facility, the pupils do not have tables and chairs, or basic teaching and learning materials such as exercisebooks and textbooks, pens and pencils.
The school has 11 dual desks to cater for all the 122 pupils who are drawn from about eight farming communities.
Benches are borrowed daily from the local Roman Catholic Church but are still inadequate, compelling the pupils to sit on the floor for classes.
The seven teachers at the school, a female and six males, also do not have tables and chairs to mark pupils’ exercises.
According to the Headteacher, Mr Yaw Dordep, most trained teachers and national service persons refused posting to the school because of the bad conditions prevailing in the school, and the few who accepted postings did not show any commitment.
Coverage
The eight farming communities Abesu D/A Basic School serves are Abesu Nsesereso, Ntrikrom, Tailorkrom, Kojusticokrom, Yawnfumkrom, Bepokokoo, Lineano and Benkrom.
The six-classroom block of the school was constructed in 1987 with sponsorship from the European Union (EU) and the government under the EU Micro Projects Programme.
Since its construction, the building has never seen any renovation either by the government or members of the community.
Residents in the deprived communities have to travel 18 kilometres to the district capital, Odumase, in order to access social amenities such as health care, potable water, quality education, mobile phone services and electricity.
The junior high school (JHS) students in the eight communities have to walk for about five kilometres to Tainso to attend school.
Lack of accommodation
Mr Dordep said he was unhappy about the development and pointed out that teachers had to travel to and from the district capital, Odumase, or Sunyani, the Brong-Ahafo regional capital, which is more than 18 kilometres away, every day to teach, due to the lack of accommodation.
Mr Dordep added that the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, had donated 50 bags of cement for the construction of teachers’ bungalow but work was yet to start.
The Kindergarten one and two teacher of the school, Madam Alice Apraku, expressed worry that the school had been neglected with regard to funding and the provision of amenities and teaching aid to enhance teaching and learning.
She pointed out that sometimes teachers had to use their own money to buy food, books, pens and pencils for some of the pupils in the school.
Call on government
She called on the government to consider including the school in the School Feeding Programme to enhance education in the area.
She also appealed to the parents and guardians to provide their children with food and other learning materials.
Madam Apraku, therefore, called on the government, non-governmental organisation individuals and organisations to come to the aid of the school to save the pupils.
District Director
When contacted, the Sunyani West District Director of Education, Madam Veronica Adu Sarfo, stated that she had been at post for less than a year and would not want to comment on the development.
She added that neither the circuit supervisors nor the head of the school had brought the situation to her attention.
“My checks from my planning officer, however, indicated a shortage of furniture at the school, especially the Kindergarten section,” Madam Sarfo admitted.
