Anyinam R/C School appeals for support

Anyinam (E/R), March 20, GNA - The Parent Teacher Association of the Anyinam Roman Catholic School has appealed to the Ghana Education Service, the Atiwa District Assembly and Non-governmental Organizations to help rehabilitate the school building. The school, which was established 65 years ago, had only the upper primary department being rehabilitated about three years ago with assistance from the Catholic Church.

Mr Lawrence Ofori, Head Teacher of the Primary Department said parts of the school's structure leaked badly making it impossible for classes to go on when it rained. He said the lower primary building had developed very deep cracks making the structure more of a death trap than classrooms to the pupils and teachers.

This came to light during the Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) meeting of the school on Wednesday at Anyinam in the Atiwa District. Mr. Ofori said part of the roof of the lower primary and Junior High School buildings had been reaped off by rain storm leaving pieces hanging over the building.

Answering questions from the media, he said attempt by the school to get carpenters to repair the roof failed because the carpenters were afraid to work on the weak roof.

He said the school made an appeal to the Atiwa District Assembly for support but that did not receive any positive response. Mr Ofori said when the PTA decided to levy each child at the school with one bag of cement for the rehabilitation, some parents decided to withdraw their children to other schools which led to lowering of enrolment at the school.

He said due to the poor nature of the school building, thieves often broke into the store of the Kindergarten to steal their food items.

Mr Ofori said currently, the John The Baptist Catholic Parish of Anyinam had donated 1000 Ghana Cedis to the school to mould blocks to begin the rehabilitation. He said the parish had promised to organize a fund raising harvest on Easter Sunday to use the proceeds to support the rehabilitation. Madam Rose Kesewa, a teacher at the Kindergarten department said the department did not have any text books for teaching and appealed to the District Education Directorate to provide the school with text books.

When the District Chief Executive for Atiwa, Mr Kwesi Osei Agyepong was contacted, he confirmed that the Atiwa District Assembly had received a request from the school for support. He said the Atiwa District Assembly was established only in 2004 and it inherited a large number of bad school buildings, with some more deteriorated than the Anyinam R/C school.

Mr Agyepong said the Assembly was making efforts to get financial resources to rehabilitate the Anyinam R/C School building to get the school's environment to an acceptable standard.