Pupils of Pleyo M/A school forced to study in frail bamboo structures amidst lack of furniture

Correspondence from Eastern region

Pupils and teachers of the Pleyo M/A Primary School in the Eastern Region have no option but to cope with infrastructural difficulties confronting the school until help finally arrives.

The school with a pupil population of 280 is confronted with inadequate classroom blocks, lack of washrooms, and insufficient furniture.

The situation has forced the school to build a bamboo structure to serve as temporal classroom blocks for the affected classes.

Though the KG block and lower primary classes including primaries 1 and 2 have decent classroom blocks in which they sit to learn, these pupils dread progressing to class three and the upper primary classes which are forced to study in a frail bamboo structure due to the lack of classrooms.

Though classes 1 and 2 also do not have classroom blocks in which to study, a pavilion constructed by an NGO has been converted into classrooms for them.

Headmistress of the school, Regina Djangmah in an interview with GhanaWeb spelt out the problems of the school.

“As you can see around, we lack classroom structure for the upper primary, that is from class three to six. So we need a permanent structure,” Miss Djangmah said.

But that is not the only problem confronting the Pleyo M/A Primary School with furniture deficit being another challenge being faced by the school.

The headmistress told GhanaWeb that lack of furniture for both pupils and teachers was a big problem for the school.

“Aside the infrastructure also, we lack teachers and pupils tables. As you can the pictures yourself, you can see comparing our enrolment with the pupils tables and chairs with the kind of situation we find ourselves as at now concerning the COVID-19 era, we are to ensure social distancing with sitting arrangements but the pupils are many, the sitting places also are few,” the school head lamented.

To keep up with the challenges, she explained that pupils were compelled to bring their own furniture to school every day.

The situation according to her does not encourage conducive teaching and learning as well as ensuring social distancing in the school.

“Most of them have to carry their eating tables and chairs from home before we can ensure the social distance. The tables and chairs that we also have, that is the mono desks, we have three or four pupils sharing one desk which is also affecting the academic system of the school.”

The school does not also have washrooms for the pupils. The headmistress said the pupils are thus forced to resort to open defecation whenever they must respond to nature during school hours.

Asked how the situation was affecting academic activities in the school, the headmistress noted that they had no option except to close the pupils whenever it rains.

She said, “With regards to infrastructure, when it rains, we have to close the children before the closing time because there are no sitting places for them to be kept when it is about to rain.”

She also noted that the absence of furniture keeps some pupils who do not have domestic tables and chairs to bring to school, to skip classes.

Though the situation has severally been communicated to the Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly and the Municipal Education Directorate, she said help is yet to arrive.

Dadematse of Pleyo, Nene Emmanuel Tetteh Kwao expressed regret at the state of the school and called for urgent intervention.

“The classroom blocks are insufficient, we only have a KG block, we don’t have classroom blocks for the other classes so we are appealing for a primary block,” he said.

He also appealed for a junior high school block as the pupils who complete primary school in the community have to walk long distances to neighbouring communities to access JHS education.

Appeal

Madam Regina Djangmah, Nene Emmanuel Tetteh Kwao and the residents, therefore, made an appeal to the assembly and other benevolent organisations for support to provide a conducive learning environment for the pupils.