UE: Assembly Refuses to Renovate 3 Unit Classroom Block Destroyed by storm 6 years ago.
The Bongo District Assembly of the Upper East Region has remained mute over the renovation of a 3 Unit Classroom Block located at Zorkor-Kankoo a suburb of Bongo District.
The facility which was constructed in the year 2008 under the sponsorship of UNICEF had its roof torn off by a wind storm in 2017.
The floor of the classrooms has also deteriorated to a very bad state.
Only one of the classrooms has fewer (less than 20) dual desks for students to sit on, while the other two have none.
The whole building has no door or window functioning anymore, the facility has only one table used by teachers with less than 5 teacher chairs which are all broken down.
In an exclusive interview with the Headteacher of the School Mr. Moro Baba Akalari, he stated that the school seems to have been abandoned by the assembly.
“We have written letters upon letters to the assembly through the Ghana Education Service (GES) prompting them about the nature of the building from 2017 to 2022 but nothing has been done about the situation”.
He added that the school has no furniture.
“The school doesn’t even have furniture, we only have one table which is even in a bad state, that is all we have as teachers, imagine my office, since you came have been standing because we don’t even have chairs that you can sit.”
Speaking of the nature of the building, he said “the roofing was even poorly done as well as the flooring, but imagine the location of the school, if this school closed down, where will these students go to?”
Mr. Adiiro Ben Adongo, one of the teachers in the school described the facility as a death trap.
“The best way to describe this building is a death trap, sometimes, we see wind pilling off the zinc while students are in the class, and whenever it’s raining, we have to convey the students into the upper primary building so that all of them will be there which is also risky because of the numbers. Most of the students have stopped schooling.”
On her part, Madam Apigsiya Ramatu another teacher told me, she feels bad anytime she comes to school but she still has to do her best for the students.
“I usually feel sad when I am coming to school, especially in the rainy season, I am from Kandiga but I have to ride in and out every day because the school has no accommodation. During the rainy season, I have to take a longer route through Sirigu. Most of our colleague teachers have refused to come here because of the condition of the school.”
Considering what I observed, it is obvious the school will collapse if nothing is done to salvage the infrastructural situation of the school.
The school authorities, the community, and the students are calling upon the government, civil society organizations benevolent individuals to help save the future of the students.
Contact the school authorities on 0248579067, 0244272441, 0547914389
