Schools in Chereponi remain closed one year after clashes

Assemblyman for Tegenga in the Chereponi District of the North East Region is appealing on teachers who fled the community during the recent communal clashes to return.

This is because schools in about 17 communities in the district have remained close a year after clashes led to the loss of lives and properties which included education infrastructure.

The future of many children in the community lies in limbo as Ghana Education Service Directorate in the Northern Region ordered headteachers not to reopen schools until calm is restored to ensure the safety of the students and staff.

“We have about four communities including Tegenga and then we have a total number of about three hundred children who are attending school in this community but because of the conflict, all the teachers have left. So, all these children currently do not go to school. What are they going to do in future as Ghanaian children. Their life is now in danger because there is no teacher or classroom for them to stay and learn,” the assemblyman said.

He further appealed for a classroom block and more teachers in Tegenga as there is only one teacher in the community.

He said “we are appealing to the government and the President to give us a classroom block as well teachers. I learnt that the only teacher here is a NABCO trainee who is managing these children. How can he manage them? How can he teach all of them? So, we are appealing to government”.

A renewed land dispute between the Konkombas and Anufors over a three-acre land at Naduni, a farming community in the Chereponi district in 2018, led to clashes where four persons died and several others were injured.

Even though soldiers were deployed to the area and a curfew imposed on the, residents defied the curfew and burnt tyres in the open resulting in a serious tension which made some health and education workers appeal for evacuation for fear of reprisal.