Heroine of Wa

Occasionally some personalities defy the odds and fight on behalf of the wretched of the earth, as Frantz Fannon described the voiceless and downtrodden in his book, The Wretched Of The Earth.

Rosina Diedong, headmistress of the Kpersi Municipal Assembly Primary School in Wa, fits this enviable description. There is no gainsaying the fact that she is a heroine from the Upper West Region where she seeks to brighten the corner where she is operating as a headmistress of a distressed school.

While the school is not one of those under trees, it is nonetheless encountering appreciable challenges worth attention. It is a story politicians at the helm love to hate. Unfortunately, with such heroines at post there is no killing such sorry narrations.

The president could consider Rosina for an award anytime he seeks to reward women with substance who are ready to sacrifice to illuminate the dark lives of others.

When Dr Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia visited the school recently, a can of worms was opened – something which embarrassed the Wa Municipal Chief Executive. The children in the school, safe two whose parents had managed to buy furniture for them, learn while lying on the bare floor.

. Besides waist pains at this formative age, the kids are said to be suffering near-constant allergic reactions for which they seek medical intervention occasionally.

Something is definitely wrong and we are glad that Rosina, not afraid of punitive actions in the form of transfers to remote places, as is the case when defiant public officials incur the wrath of the authorities, has brought to the front burner the plight of the kids in her custody.

It is instructive that the plight of the kids at Kpersi Primary School in Wa has come to light at the heels of the State of Nation Address. If the speechwriters did not know anything about this school, its challenges being shared by many others, let them appreciate their folly and find a way of informing the Number One Gentleman.

We join Ms Rosina Diedong in inviting other organisations to emulate the example of Dr Bawumia by donating whatever quantity of furniture they can to the Kpersi School.

The practice of kids writing on the bare floor is worse than learning under trees where they would be spared allergic rhinitis. As for the elements they can manage them while learning under the trees, not so however the health challenges of long periods of learning while lying down on the bare floor.

There is no way this headmistress could have invited the media to the school with a view to exposing the challenges the kids go through. Journalists in the regions would follow high profile politicians and pick up what for them is newsworthy. The Kpersi Primary School picture is a major story any day, which is why it has received such prominence, more so with Dr Bawumia’s trailblazer.

We call on the authorities to spare Rosina Diedong a punitive transfer because she only sought to have the situation of the children reversed; that is all.