Mrs Getrude Oboshie Ananse-Baiden, the Country Programmes Manager of the Partnership for Child Development (PCD), has urged government, development partners and philanthropists, to come to the aid of the Kanjo-Kura D/A Primary School.
The school which is a beneficiary of PCD’s pilot activities, as part of a two-year impact evaluation of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, is located in a very deprived overseas community in the Northern Region.
The school, with a pupil-population of over 400, lacks the very basic infrastructure needed for effective teaching and learning, as pupils from Kindergarten (KG) to Class Two are packed in a single room, while Classes Three and Four are in another room, with Five and Six also sharing one room.
Mrs Ananse-Baiden made the call during a monitoring visit to the Nanumba-South District with the Ghana School feeding programme to some selected schools across the country.
She said there are three teachers including the head teacher and a volunteer from the community who supports the teachers especially with the language.
Mrs Ananse-Baiden about 98 per cent of the children in the lower primary have no uniforms, whilst 90 per cent come to school bare footed or in bathroom slippers, adding, “All the children in KG two sit on the bare floor”.
“It is very depressing to see children learning under this dehumanizing condition. My heart is indeed broken and I wish PCD had the capacity to address all these challenges for the benefit of these poor children who we expect to become the future leaders of this country” She said.
Mr Iddrisu Osman, The head teacher of the school, indicated that prior to the inception of school feeding, they had to go to the community on very regular basis, to plead with parents to allow their children to come to school.
He said however since the inception of the school feeding programme, enrollment has shot up and attendance has been consistent.
Mr Osman said the lack of infrastructure and qualified teaching personnel to complement the effort of the teachers makes teaching and learning unpleasant and appealed to the assembly and stakeholders to come and support the school.
He mentioned that the only borehole water in the community is located very far from the school and pleaded that the school is provided with a borehole.
Mr Mohammed Akalifa, District Coordinating Director of the Nanumba-South District during a debrief session said, the assembly would collaborate with the District Education Unit to send some furniture to the school as soon as possible.
He also reiterates the assembly commitment to talk with some donor agencies to seek support for a borehole for the school.
