The woes of Nwawasua M/A Primary School
Many educationists argue that children need a good foundation in education, especially in the early stages, of their lives.
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However, it appears the reverse is what is happening in some of the crèches in our public schools, especially in the rural areas.
I have stopped blaming teachers in rural areas for their inability to make their students pass the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), considering Plato’s saying that “the direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life”, after I visited the Nwawasua M/A Primary and Junior High School in the Sunyani Municipality of the Brong Ahafo Region. Nwawasua is a community located about 20 minutes’ drive from Sunyani.
The school, which has more than 400 pupils, cannot boast a proper structure for its Class One and kindergarten (KG), they are in a dilapidated state.
The Class One and KG-Two classrooms are under a pavilion-like structure where the pupils are exposed to all manner of environmental hazards.
The school does not have its own chairs or desks in the Primary One classroom. Some of the children sit in twos, threes, fours and fives on dual chairs and kitchen stools.
Class One, for instance, has no chalkboard while the KG-Two uses a piece of plywood which hangs loosely on the wooden pillars of the structure as its board. This plywood, I was told, once fell on a teacher’s head during lessons.
State of the classrooms
If, indeed, “the philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of a government in the next”, as stated by Abraham Lincoln, then we are heading towards doom, judging from my observation of the classrooms of the Nwawasua M/A Primary School.
The children looked unkempt and, according to information gathered by the Daily Graphic, this situation has persisted for many years.
Madam Rosina Agyiri-Tuah, the Class One teacher, expressed worry about the state of the school.
She said most of the pupils did not have chairs and tables and that made teaching and learning difficult.
“They bring their fathers’ dining tables to school and take them back home after school”, Madam Agyiri-Tuah said, and added that some of the children did not even have access to the kitchen stools and therefore perched on their mates stools.
Some of the tables have been soiled with soup and oil.”
“None of the 45 pupils in class one could do one plus one.”
“You need to write the sums on the chalkboard but because we don’t have chalkboards, we don’t learn mathematics at all; we only do reading and even that, you need to write the words on the chalkboard for the children to recognise the words”, Madam Agyiri-Tuah lamented.
Learning at Nwawasua
She said the children only recited whatever she read from their reading book since all of them did not have copies of the reading books, saying, “Because of the absence of the chalkboard, I have to dictate to them, but as you can see, they can’t write because they are too young.”
Touching on the nature of the building, she expressed grave concern that “the children are always dirty because some sit on the dusty ground and even we the teachers have to wash our dresses every day.”
According to Madam Agyiri-Tuah, when the wind blew, it made things difficult for them as the dust particles entered their eyes.
She added, “The situation is really affecting academic work here. When it is about to rain, we have to close because we can’t sit under this pavilion to learn.”
Ms Doris Pempew, a teacher of the KG-Two pupils said: “This is a structure and not a classroom. You can’t call this a classroom.”
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According to her, when she was transferred to the school, she was discouraged by the nature of the structure.
“When I came to see this classroom, I was discouraged. I wondered how these children were going to compete with their mates in other big cities”, Ms Pempew stated, noting “It is worrisome that children come to school to learn under this condition”.
She expressed worry about the lack of concentration in class, saying “One issue that affects us mostly here is lack of concentration; the children look at anything that passes around because the classroom is not walled.”
A call to NGOs
The Headmaster, Mr Joseph Japon Nnob, said goats and sheep took over the classrooms once classes were over and that they had to clean the place very well before they started lessons each day.
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According to him, when the school was established in 1979, there was no KG and that was the reason why the KG block is in a deplorable condition.
“I have written several letters to institutions and banks to come to our aid but none has responded so far,” Mr Nnob said.
He added: “We don’t have a standard classroom for the children to learn. The school does not have a staff room and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) laboratory.”
The lack of interest in the development of infrastructure at the lower level of our education systems should be addressed since the situation is a recipe for poor results at the tertiary level.
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There is, therefore, the need to provide all the necessary materials such as desks and chalkboard to enhance both teaching and learning at the school.