Accra schools under trees!

When President John Atta Mills recently addressed the 66th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York, he was trumpeting his achievement in supposedly eradicating schools under tree when stated that “the provision of free school uniforms, free text books, and the elimination of over 1000 schools under trees and turning them into brick and mortar structures, is ample testimony of our commitment to brightening the future of Ghana’s youth”.

But checks by DAILY GUIDE have revealed that the president either failed to tell his audience the truth or was being economical with it since a lot of pupils are being taught under trees in Accra.

Since the propaganda of eliminating schools under tree was made statecraft, no details have been provided except the churning out of contradictory figures.

While President Mills was talking about a 1,000 schools, Vice President John Mahama was harping on 1,300 while the man in charge of the country’s finances, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, mentioned less than 200 in the 2011 budget statement read to Ghanaians, leaving a gaping hole to fill. The question on the lips of most Ghanaians is, where are the ‘rescued’ schools?

DAILY GUIDE visited a couple of schools in the capital city, Accra following complaints from some concerned parents, and came face-to-face with the grim situation on the ground.

It emerged that a number of such schools exist right under the very nose of the Presidency here in Accra.

Interestingly, all the schools visited which included the Otano Bethel Primary and Junior High School (JHS), Adjiringanor ADMA Basic school both at East Legon in the Adentan Municipal Assembly and the Adusah D/A primary and JHS, seem to have common problems- unavailability of classrooms, and not benefiting from government’s much-touted school feeding, free text books and free school uniform programmes.

Yet, all of these less-privileged schools which lack basic amenities to aid teaching are expected to sit and write the same Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) with their colleagues in schools like Seven Great Princess Academy, North Ridge Lyceum, Ridge Church School, De Youngters, Jack and Jill, John Teye and even public schools like Achimota JHS, and Legon JHS.

At the Otano Bethel Primary and Junior High School (JHS) located at Adjiringanor in East Legon, children as young as 3 years old are taught under Neem trees.

There was virtually nothing to show that the place is a school, considering the fact that they share a number of their dilapidated classrooms with other tenants in the same house, with four classes; kindergarten 1 (A & B) to primary one and two all held under trees since there are no classrooms to accommodate them.

Until recently, the four classrooms used to operate from the main hall of the Presbyterian Church that host the school but had to be relocated under the trees due to the inconvenience they created for the church with the conveying of furniture in and out of the hall each day when the church needs to use its facilities.

The number of students in the school far outweighs the number of furniture available, thereby creating a situation where students have to literally battle for chairs and desks to sit on to learn.

Teachers of the Otano Primary and JHS do not enjoy the comfort and convenience of a staff common room and are compelled by existing circumstance to sit on a corridor in front of the church hall whilst the office of the school’s headmistress is completely detached from the school, operating from a rented ‘chamber and hall’.

She operates from the rented chamber and hall apartment nearby, sharing the place with other tenants who live in the house.

A six-classroom block project which was started under the previous administration has virtually been left to the vagaries of the weather. There is no date in sight for its completion.

Some parents told DAILY GUIDE they will like to take their wards from the school to other private schools but cannot afford to pay the exorbitant fees they charge.

Headmistress and teachers of the school, though not happy at the conditions under which they are working, declined to comment for fear of being victimised because they claimed some of their colleagues have suffered similar fate for pouring their frustration to journalists.

The school was the property of the Presbyterian Church until it relinquished it to the government six years ago for better management, but it has rather become worst, making mockery of the government take-over.

A few meters away from the Otano primary and JHS is the Adjiringanor AdMA Primary and JHS School where a similar situation exists, with a number of classes being held under trees when DAILY GUIDE got to the school.

It however has its own compound with a building in progress.

A disgusting spectacle exists at the Adusah D/A Primary and JHS which is located in the Ga-West district assembly near Pokuase; a few kilometres from the presidency in Accra and the president’s private house at Ofankor where students have to even queue to go to toilet in a dreadful pit latrine.

Students in forms 1, 2 and 3 are taught under trees under the mercy of the weather. They sometimes have to battle for chairs to sit on.

Meanwhile, a three-classroom-block project, which was started by the previous administration, has virtually been neglected.

Teachers are left with no other option but to teach the almost 150 JHS students in the open space.

DAILY GUIDE witnessed an instance where the blackboards, which were being used by some of these teachers, fell on them because of the strong winds.

In one of such instances, a teacher who got injured because a blackboard fell on him, vowed never to teach under the tree again, but he could not carry out his threat because of sympathy for the children.

School comes to an abrupt end whenever it is about to rain.

Meanwhile, the Adusah D/A JHS was said to have been adjudged the second best school in the district for their performance in the recently-released results of the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

In spite of the pressing need for a classroom block for the school, government has allegedly built an area council office at Mayera, the hometown of the incumbent Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Ebenezer Nii Armah Tackie, whilst the old office of the council located at Adusah, which can be used as a classroom, is being occupied by squatters.

Another challenge facing the school is the lack of furniture. Teachers mark the exercises of the pupils on their laps whilst three or four students share a desk.

The school has no library or an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre. For students of Adusah D/A Primary and JHS, government’s promise of free textbooks, free school uniforms, and free feeding continues to remain a mirage since they are not benefitting from any of them.

Students have to put their plates of food on the bare ground under these same trees which serve as classrooms.

The only toilet facility in the school, which was constructed and donated to the school by the Adusah development committee in 1995, is also in ruins, compelling the community to put up a make-shift pit latrine for the students.

Students sometimes have to queue to use the toilet facility since it can only accommodate two people at a time.

A red band has been hanged on the door of the latrine to signify the danger it poses to its users.

A nursery block, which was also started in 2006 by the previous government, has also not been completed.

Students of Adusah D/A often have to battle with cattle for the school’s main source of water, the Nsakyi stream, which serves the entire community.

The only teachers’ bungalow accommodates only four persons, and because of this, the rest have to travel several kilometres to teach the children.

Residents of Adusah allege that they are suffering this unjustly fate at the hands of the current government because they always vote in favour of the leading opposition party.

Some parents have moved their wards from the school to nearby schools at Mayera and Afiaman.

Chairman of the school’s Parents and Teachers Association (PTA), Joseph Odartey, has appealed to government, corporate institutions, individuals to come to their because “the children deserve better”.

Though authorities of the school have remained silent on these developments, the assemblywoman for the area, Nancy Nettey, has refuted all the claims, stating that the assembly has plans to improve the school’s infrastructure.

Some residents of Adusah who spoke to DAILY GUIDE have threatened to hit the streets with a massive demonstration in the next couple of weeks if government fails to rescue the school and the students from further neglect.

It is believed that the lack of basic amenities for some of these affected schools is having a telling effect on the performance of their students since most of them are said to score poor marks at the final exams.

This is due to the fact that the conditions and environment in which they are taught and learn are not conducive enough to help them.