To a large extent, basic and secondary education in Ghana is free; but that also comes with multifaceted challenges especially in rural parts of the country.
At the Sabronum-Nyamebekyere D/A Primary school, there is only one teacher covering all classes, there is also no classroom block, compelling community members to put up a mud structure which is now in a dilapidated state.
Once the teacher is attending a class, all other classes would have to wait until the period is over.
This school serves many other communities in the area. Students in the area who do not attend this school would have to walk for long distances to seek education in other communities. Those who are lucky are sometimes taken to those schools on motorbikes by relatives.
Adelaide Benewaa Adusei, the only teacher posted by the GES to the school, says she decided to set up the school after she saw the difficulty the students were going through before getting to school in other areas.
She mentioned an incident where a student was knocked down by a car on his way to school, whose leg has now been amputated.
Although she was posted by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to work as a teacher in a different school, she started the school as a private one until it was subsequently absorbed by the government in 2019.
She was then posted to the school as the only teacher. With almost two years since the GES took over the school, no other teacher has been posted, as Adelaide now takes care of five classes at the same time.
Due to this, students in the upper primary who are seen as mature enough are made to walk to other schools outside the community where there are adequate teachers.
Currently, the government has not provided any classroom block for the students here.
The mud structure which the community members helped to build is in a terrible shape as cracks have developed in them, forcing students to go home anytime it rains.
They also complain of reptiles entering the classroom sometimes. The only toilet facility the community members use is also in a poor state as only one student can use it at a time.
“Sometimes, teaching becomes very difficult when there is an official meeting going on at the district level. In that case, I would have to close the kids and attend the meeting or at times I become late for the meeting. Sometimes when I am sick, teaching becomes difficult because I am not able to help the children to learn.”
“When that happens, I just have to sit down in class or absent myself and ask the children not to come to school at all. Also, as the only teacher and the substantive headteacher here, I don’t have textbooks to help me carry out my work. Our classroom block is a mud structure. Sometimes we find snakes in between some walls due to cracks that have developed in them”.
The Assembly member for the area, Michael Anabiga says as part of efforts to get people to teach in the school, he has been engaging the services of someone to teach at his own cost to assist the only teacher in the school.
“As an assembly member, I decided to engage the services of two other persons to teach to assist the only teacher especially when she is absent. Not long ago after the COVID-19 outbreak, one of them gained admission into the university, so he left.”
“Later on, the other person also was admitted into a tertiary institution. He would be leaving at the end of this month. On this note, we are appealing to the government to come in to assist us. Not only the government, non-governmental organizations or private individuals who have the zeal to help should kindly intervene”, he added.
The Chief of the area, Nana Kofi Amoah, says the situation of the school which serves a number of communities, is a major concern for them.
“We need a new classroom block to be constructed for us. We also need more teachers here. Only one teacher has been posted here. Whenever she is not available, the students are made to go home. Since this is mainly a farming community, their stuff would be on the farms by the time they are asked to go home. We are appealing to the government to come to our aid. We are also calling on individuals and various groups that are in the position to assist us to help us in any way possible”.
When Citi News visited the Ahafo Ano South East District Education Directorate, officials said they were aware of the situation; but were not able to give timelines on when action would be taken.
The post Sabronum-Nyamebekyere: School with only one teacher calls for urgent attention appeared first on Citinewsroom - Comprehensive News in Ghana.
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