The future of pupils at Sokrung Bethlehem Methodist Primary School in the Upper West Akyem District of the Eastern region is nothing but gloomy as kids from kindergarten and nursery continue to study in very terrible conditions, Today can report.
And what makes the situation frightening, Today gathered, is the fact that pupils at the lower primaries (from primary One-Five,) share a death-trap caked-mud classroom which building is almost on the verge of collapsing. Today further learnt that the children often sit on the bare floor during lessons, whilst others share the tables and chairs.
“We are living in fear because our numerous complaints to school authorities concerning the deep cracks that have developed in almost all parts of our mud classroom buildings have not received any positive response.
“…but we fear that one day the building will collapse on us,” the distraught pupils and teachers told Today. According to the pupils, the school which was built with mud-clay as far back as 2010 has since not seen any rehabilitation works.
The teachers showed to Today some pieces of broken clay blocks that had come off the mud building. Earlier, when our reporters visited the school they observed that the deep cracks on some classroom blocks were making learning difficult for the school children.
After a closer examination of the situation,Today observed that the state of the school buildings were fast deteriorating as a result of lack of maintenance.
In some instances, Today discovered that there had been partial attempts to bind mortar on some of the cracks, but these were badly done.
Speaking in an interview with Today, the head teacher of the school, Mr. Samuel Sey, lamented the poor state of the school, saying “it is even worst before he was posted to the school.
“All the pupils in Kindergarten, nursery and primary who are from Sukrung Bethlehem and its adjoining communities were studying under mango trees before l was posted to head the school in 2010, but through my instrumentality the school has been able to build this mud structure which is now in its deteriorating state,” Mr. Sey stated.
Meanwhile, Today’s checks have further revealed that the school authorities in their desperation to get the problem addressed wrote a letter to the Upper West Akyem District Assembly Education office where they were promised of temporal pavilion classrooms to help ease the congestion.
Our news team also gathered that the authorities had also written through the Eastern Regional Education Office to the ministry of education about the poor state of school buildings, but were yet to receive any response.
The head teacher of the school went on to reveal that the lives of the pupils always become more threatened anytime it rains which situation compels the school to close down in the middle of lessons.
According to Mr. Sey, the caked-mud classroom structure was built by the community members with his support to give the children easy access to education without walking for miles to other communities.
“The downward trend of education in our area needs an urgent attention,” he added.
However, he noted that despite the challenges, the teachers were bent on teaching the pupils to become responsible leaders in the future.
For his part, the Chief of Sukrung Bethlehem, Nana Baffour Twum Ampofo II, confirmed that indeed the pupils of the school were reeling under a frightening situation and called on the government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other corporate institutions to assist the school with educational materials and a bore-hole.
Nana Ampofo II who spoke through his spokesperson, Mr. Kwabena Odruo Aboagye Arthur, decried the lack of waste bins in the area and appealed to Zoomlion Ghana Limited and government to support the community with rubbish containers.
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