GES welcome class one pupils to school

Accra, Sept. 19, GNA - The Ga East District Assembly has started a programme under which it is designing two to three storey classroom structures to accommodate the growing population of pupils in the district.

Currently, the District has started with the Madina District Assembly Two/Three Basic School, and it is expected to construct and rehabilitate seven of such schools by the close of the year. Mr. Kofi Allotey, District Chief Executive, said this in a briefing to the media during a visit by officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to the La-Nkwantanang D/A Cluster of Schools to celebrate and welcome the Class One pupils to school.

The GES officials, led by Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, Deputy Director General in-charge of Academic Affairs, also visited the Presec. Staff School, Legon, and the Adenta Community School and shared sweets, caps, boxes of beverages, pencils, biscuits, among other things, to the pupils.

A team of other officials led by Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports also visited schools at Nsawam and Abokobi to celebrate the Day, dubbed: "My First Day at School" introduced by the Ministry last year, with them.

At the Presec Staff School, Mrs Mary Duah one of the headmistresses of the School said 250 pupils were admitted out of the 300 that applied. The rest were directed to other schools.

She said pupils come from as far as Aburi, Tema, Dodowa, Prampram and Kasoa to attend the school because of the quality of education being offered.

At the school, the pupils were found to be very happy, neatly dressed in school uniforms and well accustomed to the school environment.

Mrs Duah attributed this to the Kindergarten system introduced by the government at each public school which offered pre-school education to the children before being admitted to the main school. At the Adenta Community School, the story was no different from Presec. Staff School except that the teachers complained of the huge enrolment, which, they said, would have adverse effect on the teaching facilities.

The teachers therefore called for expansion of the infrastructure to correspond with the capacity of the children, all of which were required to be admitted under the new GSE educational policy. However, at the Nkwantanang Cluster of Schools, most of the Class One pupils were dressed in mufti and bathroom sandals. Some of the parents claimed their wards' uniforms were being sewed while others said they were yet to buy school uniforms for their children.

It was noticed in all the schools visited that each class contained between 50 and 60 pupils instead of the GES required 35 to 45. The Headmistress of Nkwantanang D/A 7/8 Primary School, Ms Nancy Abrokwah, said class one enrolment for the academic year had increased to 62 on the first day of reopening instead of the normal 22 as a result of the capitation grant.

She said the schools on the compound were yet to benefit from the school-feeding programme, adding that officers came last academic year to enrol them.

Mr. Bannerman-Mensah expressed worry over the enrolment capacity against the limited infrastructure and promised that the GES would do its best to assist.

He, however, said it was the responsibility of the Municipal and District Assemblies to provide such facilities and therefore urged communities to pressurize the assemblies to provide such infrastructures.

He said in the short term, about 70 per cent of National Service personnel would be deployed to the schools to teach the pupils. Retired teachers would also be contacted to help as measures were being put in place to restructure the salaries and general conditions of service of teachers 93into something good".