Correspondence from Western Region
The Nana Avo-Nwiah M/A Basic School's structure in the Tikobo Number Two Electoral Area of the Jomoro Municipality in the Western Region is now a death trap for school children and staff.
The school, situated at Tikobo No.2 Forest Junction was established by a private man but was adopted by the government of Ghana under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama in 2016.
Some students of this school stay at home due to the deplorable nature of the building.
Students of Nana Avo-Nwiah M/A Basic School also find it difficult to have access to government textbooks for studies.
The aforementioned situations were revealed to GhanaWeb's Western Regional Correspondent Daniel Kaku during a visit to the school.
Some students sit on the floor to study while others also bring plastic chairs from home to sit on it to study.
Mr. Cretus Azupe, the headmaster of the school disclosed to GhanaWeb that: "the school was formerly a private school and the government of Ghana under the leadership of President John Dramani Mahama took over in the year 2016 and since the establishment of the school, it has been in a deplorable state up to date and we are looking forward to see a day when we will get a better school building, as you can see this classroom is empty, no furniture and it is almost the same in the rest of the classrooms".
According to him, "our major problems here are school structure and furniture for both staff and learners, so we are appealing to the general public to as much as possible, come to our aid and grant us a proper school building to the school and if possible furnish it with adequate furniture for both staff and learners".
Effect
The headmaster admitted that even though the school building was not in the best of shape, students still passed their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
He, therefore, said if proper infrastructure was in place students could perform better.
"Looking at the structure and the environment of the school, one could possibly say that nothing good or better can come from this environment but I can assure you God being so good, we had sat for BECE for three consecutive times and we had recorded 100 percent passes and our students all had their first choice and they are in the best SHSs in the country so we know that if this school is given the needed attention, something marvellous or wonderful will come out..", he stated.
Performance of teachers
He took the opportunity to commend the teaching staff for working hard despite the limitation.
"...the kind of teachers here are God-fearing and notwithstanding the inconvenient nature of the environment, they are putting up their best and I can say that everyone is serious with his or her academic duties," he told GhanaWeb.
Inadequate textbooks
The headmaster was worried about how students and teachers struggle to get textbooks to study.
He explained to GhanaWeb TV: "Since I took over the school, it has only been once that they provided us with Mathematics and Science textbooks for primary one to six and apart from that we have not received any supply of textbooks from the Education Directorate, based on that I could say the performance would have been better if we have access to such materials but all the same with the efforts of the teachers they are trying their best getting their own teaching and learning materials from other nearby schools, I personally borrow some textbooks from Anglican Primary and Tikobo 2 M/A Primary and JHS and that has been helpful to us".
Way forward
Mr. Azupe who is worried about the situation disclosed that the authorities of the school had written a proposal yet to be presented to the Jomoro Municipal Assembly for intervention.
"A proposal has been written and yet to be submitted to the Municipal Assembly to seek for their support in rebuilding of the school and furnishing it with adequate furniture but notwithstanding this move, we are still appealing to individuals NGOs to come to our aid".
Reactions from students
Some of the final year students who spoke to GhanaWeb on camera expressed their displeasure over the situations and therefore called on government to provide them with textbooks and build a classroom block unit for them to feel comfortable.
They also pleaded with government to post new teachers to the existing teachers to help them in their studies.
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