EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IN WR SCHOOLS DEPLORABLE (PAGE 20, FEB 2, 2010)

EDUCATIONAL facilities in most districts of the Western Region are in a deplorable state. The situation discourages children from patronising the schools.
The poor school structures, coupled with the unpredictable rain patterns of the region, disrupt academic activities in a number of communities on many occasions.
In some remote parts of the region, school buildings are constructed with clay, grass and bamboo roofs.
Most of the teachers in these communities are either volunteers who are not trained, but motivated to do the job or those from the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).
This is because the conditions for teachers in these communities are not conducive to attract the trained ones to those places to work even for a week.
The roads to these communities are bad, no vehicles, water, electricity, teaching materials and decent accommodation for those who have accepted the challenge to teach in schools.
Both pupils and teachers are left with no option than to travel miles on foot, arriving in the classrooms very tired and not ready to learn.
Primary school pupils who are normally forced by their parents to go to school have to dodge classes to engage in odd jobs for money.
At Adjeikrom in the Ellembelle District, part of the structures built with clay and grass have collapsed and the floor of the school buildings are not cemented.
Sometimes, animals and reptiles enter the classrooms during lesson hours.
The same could be said of Kroboline, New Adiembra and Asomase. School structures in 13 communities in the Ellembelle District could be compared to market sheds, instead of educational facilities.
In the Jomoro District, especially Elubo, the border town, pupils in the school near the border is share their classrooms with animals.
Children have to report early to school to clean the droppings of animals before classes begin.
In other parts of the same district, pupils loiter around town instead of being in the classrooms because the structures are very deplorable.
On market days, some schools do not function because no children go to the classrooms.
Apart from few private and well-endowed schools in the regional and district capitals, the performances of the pupils in the rest of the schools are very bad.
Some schools always score between 80 and 98 per cent fail in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
As a measure of arresting the situation, the various district assemblies have initiated plans to ensure that they benefit from the government’s proposed provision of modern classroom blocks for districts with schools under trees.
According to some opinion leaders, the problems are beyond the mere provision of classrooms, stressing that a complete package of school blocks, libraries, accommodation for teachers, good roads, and other utilities must be provided.
But some District Chief Executives promise to do something different this time around. That should be done as early as possible because with the weak foundation of the children, the future is very bleak.
It is sad to note that these are the areas where the chunk of the nation’s natural resources is derived.