Teachers of Akotoshie DA JHS work under trees
This is where pupils of Avegorme DA Primary School in Sagakope study.
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Saturday February26, 2011.
“Madam Speaker, this year, we will further intensify our commitment to free exercise books, free school uniforms and turn more schools under trees into brick and mortar classroom blocks.”
These were the words of President John Evans Atta Mills when he delivered the 2011 State of the Nation address in Parliament, Accra on Thursday, February 17, 2011.
The President admits that there are many school children studying under trees and indeed even in Accra. Some secondary schools in Accra are operating under trees because of the form four students under the previous educational system recently repealed by Parliament to return to the old form three system.
The President’s statement commits the government towards acceleration of infrastructural development in education. The reality is that the pace of development is way below expectation and equal educational opportunities and facilities are fast eluding many of our future leaders, particularly those in deprived communities.
The conditions under which most pupils study, and where their teachers work, does not speak well of a nation that continually touts education as the bedrock of national development.
In Ghana, the right of children to access basic education is guaranteed under the Constitution but equal access to educational opportunities and adequate facilities is not equitably distributed.
Article 25 of the 1992 Constitution states, “All persons shall have the right to equal educational opportunities and facilities and with a view to achieving the full realization of that right”.
A trip by Daily Guide to Ga West in the Greater Accra Region painted an alarming picture.
While some towns and villages in Ga West Municipality may have an appreciable level of educational infrastructure, that is not the case with other parts of the area.
Akotoshie District Assembly Basic School is a typical case of the state of neglect that characterizes public institution. The Primary section seems to be in place but their counterparts in the Junior High School study in an incomplete structure and a makeshift shed roofed with palm fronds. Their daily prayers are the rains should not come down.
Plight of Pupils and Teachers
“When we see that the rains are coming we have to stop everything we are doing and send the children home because there is nowhere to keep them,” Obed Agbenyo, Headmaster of Akotoshie District Assembly JHS told DAILY GUIDE.
He explained that a block for the JHS was constructed through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) three years ago but the contractor abandoned the project midway because he claimed the GETFund refused to pay him the contract sum.
“I was posted here only three weeks ago. There were no classrooms for us. We used palm frond sheds. Then we decided to use the [uncompleted] building’s classrooms by using palm fronds as roofing sheets.”
The School Prefect, Felix Ahiaga complained, “When we are in the classroom reptiles and all sort of insects disturb us a lot. It is affecting our studies. Our colleagues in other schools are studying under a proper environment but we are not. This is the reason why some of the students would prefer staying at home than to be in school”.
Mary Finako, Girls Prefect of the school summed up the pupils’ feelings when she said, “We feel like we are not part of the children in Ghana. We study under difficult conditions. During the rainy season we are not able to go to school.
Please speak for us to get proper classrooms so we can also be happy.”
The teachers have no desks. They converge under trees and sheds to mark work - sometimes using benches and other things as furniture.
Even in the primary section where the situation has significantly improved the pupil/teacher ratio is overwhelming. The numbers of pupils in the classrooms exceed what the teachers can suitably cope with.
“Teachers who are posted to deprived schools are sacrificing a lot”, added Headmaster Agbenyo. “They work under harsh conditions but whenever the students are not able to do well in examinations we are criticized. They simply need sound structures to do better.”
From Akotoshie to Avegorme, a suburb of Sogakope in the Volta Region, the story is the same: there is no decent place for children to study. School children in Akotoshie may be fortunate to have at least an uncompleted structure - the story of their counterparts in Avegorme is comparatively abysmal.
The Head Teacher, Emmanuel Nudzogbeti of Baptist DA Primary School in Avegorme, a suburb of Sogakope in the South Tongu District, summed up his despair when he said: “We cannot produce future leaders out of this. We have to commit ourselves as a nation towards the infrastructural development of all our educational institutions.
“We allow the children to go home when the rains are coming because the structures are just too bad,” he complained.
Maclean Yevu, Assembly member for Akotoshie Electoral Area took DAILY GUIDE around the area for inspection. It was clear that educational infrastructure needs urgent uplift.
He says, “We are trying to do our best but there are no funds. The assembly alone cannot shoulder this burden. Everybody is needed to help.”
Emerging threats to Urban Schools
Rural schools may be lacking basic facilities but the emergence of challenges facing urban schools should be taken serious by city authorities.
They face problems of encroachment - bandits and miscreants use the schools’ premises, while in other cases local churches virtually take over classrooms. The abuse of the facilities leads to a shortage of desks and other supplies.
“People living around Abossey Okai Cluster of Schools have turned the premises into their home. They do all sort of things there” a teacher told Daily Guide.
“They break our desks, doors and windows and use our toilet facilities. They even defecate in the classrooms,” he added.
ICT & School Feeding Programme
“Madam Speaker, the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology has already begun distributing computer notebooks to brilliant but needy science students.” the President stated during his state-of-the-nation address.
The President may have outlined the government’s plans to boost ICT learning in schools but this will remain elusive as long as electricity is not available. ICT development is possible only in tandem with availability of electricity and the best way forward is to make it accessible in all schools.
“We will also expand the Capitation Grant as well as the School Feeding Programme support” the President added. “The latter programme has been restructured in such a way that the development partners who earlier pulled out on account of poor financial and procurement audit reports are considering resuming their financial support for the programme”
The School Feeding Programme (SFP) has greatly increased enrollment of students, which accounts for the pressure on already overstretched schools.
“The School Feeding Programme has really helped a lot but it has to go to the villages and vulnerable communities - not those in the cities”, Nii Armah Tackie, the Ga West Municipal Chief Executive notes.
“It is clear the children want to attend schools where food is served”. He continued, “I am lobbying to get more schools in my area under the programme and when I am successful I will send it to those who need it most.”
Motivation and Support
The Ga West MCE is confident that conditions are improving in the school system. “The government’s commitment to solve problems confronting basic education is on course”, he says.
“Parents do not send their children to schools where there are poor facilities” he added. “As soon they know you are improving infrastructure they rush to enroll their wards. It is up to us as major stakeholders to continue to improve educational infrastructure to bring hope to school children and their parents.”
He says the assembly established education fund to support infrastructural development, ICT learning and provide scholarship to vulnerable children. “We are working hard but we want the School Management Committees and the Parent Teacher Associations to partner us very well so that we can effectively tackle these problems.”
Interventions
GA West MCE tells DAILY GUIDE that every town and village in the municipality will get its share of educational facilities, decent enough to satisfy the needs of all children. He emphasized, “We are building more schools and supply the needed facilities and very soon the results will start showing.”
The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), in its case is struggling to improve education facilities in the capital starting with the abolishing of the shift system. But this good plan is at a huge cost because now classes are far beyond acceptable level. Classrooms are choked with some classes holding up to 120 pupils. Now parents are being asked to make monthly contributions to build more school blocks in the metropolis.
Numo Blafo, PRO of the AMA says the Assembly is embarking on an ambitious project dubbed “Millennium City Schools” and adds “We have already started with Ayalolo Cluster of Schools and those in Mamprobi. It will be all over the metropolis. It is going to be huge with 18 classrooms and all the necessary facilities. It will change the way we handle basic education.”
Similar stories are being told by the various assemblies. They are all putting the needed interventions to make education accessible.
Goal Two of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) sets out that by 2015 all countries should ensure every child completes primary schooling. Ghana is on course to achieve this goal.
However, the quality of education may be sacrificed in the process. Thus, the tools necessary for future leaders to succeed may not be available, unless resources are effectively and equitably allocated on time.
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