Education Directorate ends six-year struggle with office space

A new office complex has been completed for the Afigya-Kwabre District Education Directorate, thus ending a six-year struggle with office space.

The structure, an architectural showpiece, which comes with 14 offices, conference hall, washrooms and a car park, has been hailed by the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Kwaku Oppong-Kyekyeku Kaakyire, as a “dream come true.”

He said the project, funded by the United States of Agency for International Development (USAID), was the beginning of good things to happen.

The Assembly at its birth in 2008, did not receive any ceded money for the construction of the basic infrastructure – office and residential accommodation, leading to a situation where it has been operating with its decentralized departments from rented premises.

Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that this had become a huge drain on the assembly's limited financial resources, and that everything was being done to tackle the problem.

He said the present state of affairs where the Assembly was ran from the premises of a filling station with its decentralized departments scattered, did not make for smooth administration and could not therefore continue.

Reporters of the nation’s wire service had visited the area under STAR-Ghana’s sponsored media auditing and tracking of development projects, an initiative launched to put the spotlight on how government’s resources were helping to transform the lives of the people, particularly those in rural communities.

The goal is to aid transparency, promote accountability and good local governance.

He said work was near completion on the Assembly’s three-storey administration block and that it would save the Assembly from huge rent payment and free resources for development projects.

Mr. Oppong-Kyekyeku said in spite of the challenges, the Assembly was making giant strides in terms of the provision of classrooms, teachers’ bungalows and dormitories for senior high schools.

He added that it had established four information communication technology (ICT) centres at Amoako, Hemang, Nkwantakese and Kodie, and said they were promoting computer literacy among the people.