Flashback: Mahama’s E-blocks were built in bushes for good reason - Prof. Opoku Agyemang

Former Education Minister who now is the vice-presidential candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang in September 2019 defended the decision by former President John Dramani Mahama to site some E-Block schools in isolated areas.

According to the former Minister who superintended the implementation of projects, the schools were sited in the ‘bushes’ for good reasons.

In an interview with Accra-based Okay FM, Prof Opoku-Agyemang is quoted to have said that some of the factors that motivated the choice of bushy areas to build the schools included “quietness” so that students could actually study away from the chaos and noise of town.

Another reason she said was to make the places where the schools are sited to open up for other developmental projects in the future.

Read the full story originally published on September 4, 2019, on Ghanaweb

Former Minister for Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang has explained the factors that led the erstwhile John Mahama administration to site some of its Community Day Senior High Schools, popular known as the E- Blocks in what has largely been described and accepted as “the bush”, MyNewsGh.com reports.

The Community Day Senior High Schools initiative, which was rolled out by the previous administration to bridge the education gap between the rural and urban areas by building some 200 new facilities across the country has been highly criticized by functionaries of this government and a sizeable portion of society, for where they were sited.

Some have even argued that some of the facilities have still not been put to use or completed because they are far away from town, thereby making it inaccessible to students and other stakeholders.

But Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang, the minister who superintended over the implementation of the initiative has explained that the schools were sited in the bushes for good reasons; she spoke in an interview with Accra-based Okay FM, monitored by MyNewsGh.com.

She has explained that some of the factors that motivated the choice of bushy areas to build the schools included “quietness”, so that students could actually study away from the chaos and noise of town.

Another factor too, she said was to make the places where the schools are sited to open up for other developmental projects in the future.