Mamehyeso Basic School faces imminent closure

The Mamehyeso Primary School in the Suhum Municipality will soon be close down if parents continue to withdraw their children from the school.

So far, five of the six teachers in the school have been withdrawn by the Ghana Education Service (GES) as a result of low student population.

A GES official who spoke to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on condition of anonymity said, currently only 15 out of 210 pupils are attending the school.

Parents in the village have withdrawn their children to nearby schools in Tetteh Nkwanta, Adarkwah, Kofiga, Suhum Gariba Zongo Islamic Primary School and Suhum Roman Catholic Primary School.

Some of the children who were withdrawn from the school have dropped out of school and are now truck pushers, coconut sellers, basket weavers, ‘akpeteshie’ distillers, rat and grasscutter hunters, while some of the girls have become pregnant.

The official said the school was established 50 years ago by the Ministry of Education at the request of the community, and so the GES did not understand why the community had decided to neglect the school.

When the Odikro of the village, Nene Amuyaw Ashate was contacted, he confirmed the story and said several warnings by the traditional authorities and elders of the village to parents to stop withdrawing their children from the school had not achieved the desired result.

He said currently, some of the children had to walk for a distance of six kilometers to attend school outside the community.

The Odikro said there were plans for the elders of the town to meet with parents to discuss the issue and find a solution to the challenges facing the school.