Akurakia local primary school appeals for classroom blocks

The Akurakai community in the Tano North Municipality of the Ahafo Region has appealed for public support to build a classroom block for the local primary school in the area.

According to Mr. Evans Duah, the community’s Unit Committee Chairman, the school was up to classes three with only one teacher.

He said the school had about 100 children and because it was the only nearby school in the area, it served about 10 adjoining communities.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a visit to the community, Mr. Duah also appealed for the rehabilitation of the about four kilometre road which connected the community to the main road linking Bomaa and Duayaw-Nkwanta.

When the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited the community on Tuesday, it was observed that lessons were being held in a dilapidated Roman Catholic Church building the three classes, namely classes one to three and the only teacher handles the three classes in the same building.

Mr. Kakari Appiah Agyei, the school’s teacher also told the GNA that two other teachers engaged by the then National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) stopped teaching about five years ago when their contract expired.

He said the situation had forced him to always rotate the classes, with the three classes go in and out of the building during lesson periods.

The pupils did not attend classes during rainy seasons because of the condition of the church building, Mr. Agyei indicated.

Mr. Agyei, a graduate of the University of Cape Coast, said he was offering voluntary services to the community and the school lacked teaching and learning materials, but because the future of the children was paramount he had to cope with the situation.

He said the community had reported the problem to the Tano North Municipal Assembly, but nothing had been done, and commended Mrs. Freda Prempeh, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Constituency who is putting up a three unit classroom block for the school.

Mr. Agyei said the MP had been supportive to the school by supplying the children with school uniforms, reading and exercise books and other teaching and learning materials at regular intervals.

He said the school also needed toilet and urinal facilities urgently and appealed to philanthropic individuals and organisations to come to their aid. Mr. Agyei expressed joy over the progress of work on the construction of the classroom block, and expressed the hope that on completion the Ghana Education Service would post teachers to serve the community.