Overcrowding hampers quality education at Garu-Tempane

Overcrowding in most schools in the Garu-Tempane District of the Upper East Region, is affecting teaching and learning.

TV3's Upper East Regional Correspondent, Eva Atiboka, reports that some classrooms have about 140 pupils.

The Garu D/A Primary School established in 1996, is struggling with a population of over a thousand in the Kindergarten and primary levels . As the number of pupils keep increasing, infrastructure remains the same.

"This is one of the oldest schools in the district and because of the hard work of the teachers everyone wants the ward to come to DA. And one teacher handling over 1000 pupils is very challenging" a teacher said.

The least class size is 118 pupils. Class rooms are overly crowded generating intense heat, affecting quality teaching and learning.

"Most of the times when I am teaching I have to be very careful else I will end up stepping on the pupils as they sit on the bare floor. And I have to move around to see what they are doing because they are KG children.

Teachers who spoke to TV3 were frustrated about the situation which they say is affecting teaching and learning.

"The population makes it difficult to handle them. As a professional teacher, I should be able to assess each child but looking at the numbers, how do I do that"?

The District Assembly has promised to fix the problems, but nothing appears to be happening.

"This shouldn't be happening in this era. This time round Government's policy is that pupils shouldn't travel long distances to go to school. But we have some communities with people travelling about five to six kilometers to go to school. And we have budgeted for it this year and we hope that by 2015 or early 2016 they should have a school block", the District Chief Executive told TV3.

Part of the school's uncompleted block is compelling children particularly in kindergarten to learn on the bare floor in a dilapidated structure. The uncompleted structure which was funded by the European union has stalled allegedly due contractor's lackadaisical attitude.

The DCE Robert Alazua told TV3 the Assembly will rearward the project to new contractors to complete it.

A female Kindergarten teacher told TV3 classes are suspended at the slightest rainfall. Some open drains were also spotted posing danger to the children who play around it. TV3 gathered that the European Union left behind items for completion of the structure but they cannot be traced.

The DCE Robert Alazua, who took over in 2012, is asking residents to volunteer information on the whereabouts of the items. He says the assembly is committed to completing all the projects which have been captured in the 2015 budget.