Inadequate furniture hindering academic activities at Oborpah M/A basic schools

Correspondence from Eastern Region

The lack of furniture, particularly for the Junior High School students is gradually affecting academic activities at the Oborpah M/A Basic schools in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality of the Eastern Region.

The problem is said to be affecting teaching and learning at the school and has the potential of derailing the academic activities of the students.

The challenge is not new for the about 50 Junior High School students who have struggled to cope with the situation.

The students in the interim have been provided with a hexagonal table used by kindergarten pupils.

Some of the students at the time of GhanaWeb’s visit were observed seated behind the hexagonal table, uncomfortable as the situation is.

One of the students who spoke with GhanaWeb on condition of anonymity lamented how uncomfortable it was for him, sitting behind a table designed for kids.

“Using this table is not convenient for us at all,” said the worried student.“It’s too short for our age and we suffer to bend to be able to write accurately. It’s really uncomfortable.”

Another simply said “This is not right, we are not kids so how can we use desks meant for kids at our age? We appeal to the government and the authorities to provide us with desks immediately.”

Education Director at the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Education Directorate, Mr Williams Odoi when contacted by GhanaWeb denied knowledge of any furniture problem confronting the school.

Though information picked up indicated that school authorities had severally brought the problem to the attention of authorities.

The director, however, said school heads were mandated to channel any challenges confronting them to the education office through the MCE but this has not happened in the case of the Oborpah M/A Basic schools.

“When you have that issue, it is the head who has to write to the office, he addresses to the District Chief Executive, then I write covering letter because renovations and building of schools are in the hands of the District Assembly so the head is yet to bring [this to our attention],” Mr. Odoi explained.

The Education Director who said his attention was only being brought to the issue by GhanaWeb noted that the Assembly together with education authorities were taking action on similar infrastructural problems being faced by some schools in the municipality.

According to him, officials from the education directorate visited the schools frequently to ascertain problems confronting the schools and no such issue from Oborpah M/A Basic schools had been reported to him.

He said, “We have a team, circuit supervisors, they have been going around but nobody has alerted me on that issue.”

Lack of nose masks

It was also observed that most of the students were not in their nose masks at the time of the visit, though some personal protective equipment including sanitisers and tissues had been provided.

The Municipal Chief Executive of the area, Simon Kweku Tetteh as part of the ‘My First Day At School’ presented nose masks to KG1, KG2 and class one pupils, but the rest of the about 260 student body is yet to receive their share, putting them at risk of contracting the virus.

With the school yet to receive any veronica buckets and soap, pupils and authorities have been compelled to improvise with galloons half-filled with water and strapped to a wooden stand as a handwashing stand for teachers and pupils.

The headmaster of the school, Daniel Narh Tokoli, when contacted for his response, could only appeal to benevolent organisations to come on board to offer the needed assistance and thereafter directed GhanaWeb to authorities at the Ghana Education Office in the municipality for further responses.

KG1, KG2, and class one pupils combined in one class

Another disturbing observation made by Ghanaweb was the combination of KG1, KG2, and class one pupils of the school.

The situation is being blamed on a rainstorm that rocked the community on the 11th of March, 2020, and ripped off parts of the roof of the kindergarten block.

Works are however ongoing to fix the problem following the donation of three packs of roofing sheets by the Member of Parliament for the area, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi to the school.