Anxiety over safety of pupils and teachers

Anxiety is growing over the safety of children and teachers of the Kyekyebiase M/A Junior High School (JHS) in the Asante-Akim Central Municipality, as the block of classrooms they are using has become a death trap.

The structure looks visibly weak with gaping cracks all over the walls and could collapse anytime soon.

Worried and angry parents in the community want it to be pulled down without delay to avert a “disaster” – only waiting to happen.

Some of them, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), accused the municipal assembly of insensitivity.

Rain storms had destroyed the roofing and weakened the walls of the school block, about five years ago, and the expectation was that the assembly was going to level the building and replace it with a new one but that has not been done.

It instead decided to put the roofing back on the badly damaged structure.

Reporters of the nation’s wire service had visited the school under STAR-Ghana’s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put a spotlight on how government’s resources were helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly the rural population.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good local governance.

Mr Felix Amakye, the assembly member, said he had persistently drawn the assembly’s attention to the danger faced by the students and their teachers.

He said as Convener of the assembly’s education sub-committee, he has been doing everything he could to get the assembly to take appropriate steps to remove the threat but without success.

The structure was constructed as far back as 1964 and over the years had not seen any repairs.