Day: April 1, 2024

Pupils and parents of the Gundork Primary School in the Nabdam District of the Upper East Region have called on the government, non-government organisations and philanthropists to support the school to prevent the building from collapse.

The school’s structure has developed large cracks on its walls and gables, with all its supporting front pillars, especially from classes one to three, destroyed, exposing the iron rods.

The windows and doors of the school have also been destroyed while the floor has deep potholes, exposing school children to danger.

The school has 385 pupils, comprising 187 boys and 198 girls.

Master Michael Yen, a Class Three pupil of the school, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that he was always sitting in class with fear due to the deplorable nature of the building.

‘All the pillars are always shaking whenever there is a strong wind, and we feel uncomfortable sitting in the classroom because we are afraid it may collapse on us, and this is destructing our studies, so we want the gov
ernment to help renovate the school for us before something bad happens,’ he stated.

Mr Iddrisu Kabiru, the Assistant Headteacher of the school, noted that apart from the deplorable state of the building being a threat to the lives of both staff and pupils, the number of pupils also outweighed the capacity of the school, which was again mounting pressure on the building.

He said instead of a normal class size of about 30 pupils, class two had 60 pupils, class three had 95 pupils, class four had 75 pupils, class five had 59 pupils, class six had 61 pupils, and class one had the least with 35 pupils.

Mr Kabiru added that the only thing that was motivating the pupils was that the school was benefiting from the school feeding programme but added that the children had not been fed lately.

Mr Joseph Kologbon, a parent and resident of the community, said the fast deterioration of the structure could be attributed to shoddy work by the contractor.

‘In all indications, it is very clear that the contractor did sho
ddy work and must be held responsible if anything happens to anybody in that school because this school was built just in 2007 when our mud houses were already there, but look at it, it is even weaker than our mud houses,’ he stated.

Mr Isaac Wulug, the Assemblyman of the Zanlerigu-Dagliga Electoral Area, emphasized that there was a need for the Government to expedite action on the renovation of the school to avoid casualties and ensure the continuity of academic activities.

He added: ‘If we are by the assertion that these children are our future leaders then we must show them quality leadership by inculcating in them the mindset of improvement and this includes getting them a conducive environment to study.’

Aside from the trauma of sitting in such classrooms, some of the pupils also have no chairs to sit on and are compelled to sit on the bare floor with their books on their laps to write or lie on their bellies to write whenever they are given class exercise.

Madam Agnes Anamoo, the District Chief Exec
utive, said the school was really in a bad state, and while the assembly was considering the option of including it in the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) Project, other organisations could come in to help, given the urgent attention it deserved.

Source: Ghana News Agency

The Ketu South Municipal Education Directorate has started screening the eyes of candidates writing the 2024 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in July.

The motive is to give treatment to those with eye conditions before they sit for their examination.

The exercise had already seen about 150 of the candidates from Aflao Central and East Circuits screened on Good Friday.

Those in Klikor Circuit are expected to have theirs on April 5, Agbozume Central and East, April 12, then later, Adafienu and Hatsukope Circuits.

The eye screening exercise for the candidates was being organised by the Municipal Education Directorate in collaboration with the Eye Clinic of the Ketu South Municipal Hospital, Aflao.

Mrs Linda Dey Kordorwu, officer in charge of special needs at the Directorate, in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA), said suspicions that candidates might be having visual problems led to the initiative.

‘I supervise candidates during their final examinations, and I see some of them struggli
ng. At times, I see them bringing the question papers so close to their eyes while others just stare among others. I, therefore, suspected that some of the challenges candidates face might not be examination fever but due to different visual problems.

Consequently, the Directorate liaised with the Eye Clinic of the Municipal Hospital and they, as part of their social corporate responsibility programmes, agreed to come and screen our children just for a token and refer them for possible treatment if necessary.’

Mrs Kordorwu said follow-up actions by the Ketu South Directorate would depend on the diagnosis and recommendations resulting from the exercise and, that could include a formal report to West African Examination Council to have fonts of examination papers enlarged for those who might need it.

Miss Fortune Agbevivina, an ophthalmic nurse and in charge of the outreach team, said some candidates were diagnosed with minor vision problems, including refractive errors (impairment in the ability to see in b
oth eyes – near and far), allergy and chalazion (swollen bump on the eyelid).

She noted there were others like glaucoma suspects, who would need to visit the hospital for further examination, saying that there were arrangements to link up with parents/guardians of those candidates identified with difficulty in reading and other minor problems, for treatment and correction prior to the start of the BECE.

Some of the candidates, who spoke to GNA, thanked the Directorate for the initiative while others said they suspected there could be something wrong with their vision thus, felt the need to subject themselves to the screening.

Source: Ghana News Agency