Pupils and Teachers of Twifo Kotokye D/A Basic School in the Twifo Atti-Morkwa District in the Central Region are appealing to Ghana Education Service, individuals and philanthropist to assist the school with desks.
Currently, there are no tables and chairs in Kindergarten 1 and 2 and so management have improvised by arranging two blocks with wooden slabs as chairs and three blocks with wooden slabs as tables for pupils to use as desks in the classroom.
Speaking to the myrepubliconline.com, the Assistant Headteacher of the school, Mr Paul Twum said the Kindergarten classes have no single chair and the floor is not cemented.
Mr Twum said Primary 1 has a class population of 76 with only nine dual desks, Primary 2 also has a class population of 47 with only 11 dual desks and have to resort to the wooden slabs as an alternative.
“The saddest thing is that the blocks used in the classrooms does not even belong to the school but private individual who wanted to come for them but we had to go and plead with the chief to talk to the man for our continual usage,” he stated.
He said from Primary 3 to Primary 6, they don’t use wooden slabs but they sit in fours and fives on a dual desk, a situation the assistant headteacher said impede their academics.
“What is more dangerous is the fact that the Primary 5 and 6 building is almost falling and there are no windows or doors to the classrooms and so pupils have to wash the classrooms every Monday morning because of faeces of goats and its body odor,” he stated.
Mr Twum said three weeks ago, “we have to send the pupils home because unscrupulous people came to defaecate in four classrooms making the rooms unusable for class work. It is quite crazy to see each morning how people defaecate indiscriminately in the classroom.”
The assistant head teacher laments that all letters to the district education director through the circuit supervisor to resolve their issues have proven futile.
Mr Twum said apart from the chief of the town who assisted the school with the wooden slabs, not even the Parent Teacher Association or the community have made any attempt to solve some of the problems.
He noted that because of the behavior of the children, the wooden slabs sometimes fall on their legs and the school have to bear the hospital bills.
“I remember the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Robert Agyeman Nyantakyi, sent some people from the assembly to tour the school and table our problems which they promised 100 bags of cement, 25 plywood, five packets of roofing sheets and 30 iron rods which we backed up with a letter,” he stated.
The assistant head teacher said when they decided to follow up on the promised items from the DCE, they were told the pledge didn’t come from the DCE.
Mr Twum said the conditions of the school is having a tolling effect on the academics and the zeal of the pupils to learn.
He, therefore, use this medium to appeal to individuals, philanthropists and cooperate Ghana to assist the future leaders.
All attempts to speak with the DCE about the said failed promises to the school did not yield any result.
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