The 5-bedroom house of Mr Ampofo serving as the classrooms for a public school
The headmaster of a public basic school in the Sekyere East District of the Ashanti Region has turned his five-bedroom house into a classroom block for his pupils.
The school, Naama D/A primary, was established in 2012 by the community without classrooms and later adopted by the district assembly.
Until four years ago when the headmaster, Amankwah Ampofo, voluntarily turned his 5-bedroom house into classrooms, students were forced to take their lessons under trees.
The 5-bedroom private house of Mr Ampofo
Currently, the kindergarten and primary one have been merged as one class while primary two and three have also been merged as one due to lack of more rooms to serve as classrooms.
One of the rooms in the house being used as classroom by the pupils
Primary four and five however have separate rooms in the building as their classrooms.
Mr Ampofo
Mr Ampofo told TV3 he took the decision to sacrifice his building as school block for the pupils in his quest to make teaching and learning more effective.
He said prior to that, whenever it threatened to rain, school authorities had to close the pupils for the day.
“I had no choice than to convert my 5-bedroom apartment into classrooms for these pupils even though they keep destroying portions of my building,” he said.
He said was hopeful at the time of taking the decision that the assembly would provide the school with a 6-unit classroom block within a short time.
The 3-unit classroom block being constructed by the assembly is yet to be completed
However, he said that is yet to happen four years on, noting the construction of a 3-unit classroom block for the school but that is yet to be completed.
“The Sekyere East District Assembly started the construction of a 3-unit classroom block for the school but the project is yet to be completed and handed over to us.
“The contractor told me the project is about 96% complete but the assembly is yet to pay him his outstanding debt to enable him complete the block” he said.
Mr Ampofo is thus appealing to the assembly to fast-track the completion of the project for the pupils to move in next academic year.
Per the Ghana Education Service standard, a primary school requires at least eight classrooms to run effectively.
This clearly shows that the 3-unit classroom block even upon completion will not be adequate for the school and that some of them will continue to use a portion of the headmaster’s house as their classrooms.
By Ibrahim Abubakar|TV3|3news.com|Ghana
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