Over 450 pupils of the Dagbasu primary school at Wallembelle in the Sisala East District of the Upper West Region, are forced to study under trees because they have no classrooms.
The staff of the school lamented to Citi News the extent to which the situation is hampering effective teaching and learning, bringing into question the quality of free education delivered at the basic level.
Lessons at Dagbasu primary school are conducted under trees with some of the pupils sitting on the bare floor for lessons, while others sit on blocks.
One of the teachers has to relocate his class every two hours, as directed by the sun, in search of shade for his pupils.
“…When the sun changes, we come to the area with shade. In addition, when the rain comes, irrespective of the time, you have to close and that is a serious challenge. Even picking the blocks from one direction to the other is not easy. ”
The head teacher of the School, Yusuf Batondema, noted that the challenges extend beyond infrastructure as the pupils did not also have textbooks to work with.
“…When they are sitting outside, most of the time, the run away because a snake or a chameleon falls from the trees, so the disperse most of the time. I am appealing for classroom accommodation. For primary four up to JHS three, there is no single textbook being provided by an individual or the government. Teaching and learning is stressful. It is very difficult.”
The government is aware of the challenges the school faces as it awarded contracts for two six-classroom blocks in 2013 and 2014, but they have all been abandoned with their funding statuses unknown.
Daniel Tanko, the Assemblyman for the Wallembelle electoral area, appealed to the GETfund to act on the issue, and noted that he had gotten assurances from the District Chief Executive of the area, and the Member of Parliament, Abass Ridwan Dauda.
“… About a month ago, I spoke with the DCE and the MP, and they assured that they were going to follow up on the funding issue, and later, the MP called saying funding has been released to one of the contractors.”
This was confirmed by one of the contractors, “but up till now, we are following him to come to the site but he is not coming.”
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By: Latif Mahama/citifmonline.com/Ghana