File photo: Pupils sit on stones
Kindergarten pupils of the Dawa D.A Basic School in the Ningo-Prampram District in the Greater Accra Region are use logs placed on cement blocks as school furniture.
Due to the unavailability of the needed tables and chairs, teachers have resorted to arranging cement blocks and placing logs on them for the pupils to use in their classrooms.
When the Ghana News Agency visited the school located on the Tema-Aflao highway, the logs had been arranged in a way that the lower ones served as chairs while the higher ones represented tables.
Mr John Justice Egyirifa-Esuako, outgoing Head-Teacher of the school, told the GNA that even though authorities of the school were aware that the pupils would develop back pains due to the use of the logs and cement blocks, they had no option than to use it.
Mr Egyirifa-Esuako added that the school was yet to get furniture from the Ningo-Prampram District Assembly and other stakeholders.
He also stated that parents of pupils were also not willing to help the school in anyway as according to them basic education was free in Ghana therefore no need for them to contribute in cash or kind to make the school comfortable for their children.
He further revealed that the school which was established in the 1930,s in the Dawa community and relocated to its current location 20 years ago, does not have enough classrooms to house its Junior High School department.
This, he said, had led to school authorities borrowing two classrooms from the Dawa Presby School which is located on the same compound to house its form one and three classes, while the form twos make use of the conference room of the Area Council.
Mr Egyirifa-Esuako lamented that the form two pupils relocate under the trees whenever there was a meeting in the Area Council conference room, a situation he described as disturbing as it even affected the writing of this term’s examination.
He appealed to government, the Assembly, organizations to provide furniture, classrooms and learning and teaching materials to make learning more attractive to the children.
He also called for the introduction of the school feeding programme in the school to attract more pupils to the classroom.
Meanwhile, Lekela Power Limited, initiators of the Ayitepa wind farm project in Ningo, has renovated the dilapidated Dawa D.A Basic School building as part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.
