A widespread chronic shortage of furniture at public basic schools in the Upper East region has reached a tipping point where parents and guardians can no longer watch helpless school authorities seat their children and wards on the bare floor as the new academic year gets underway.

Officials of the Ghana Education Service (GES) say there are schools- not only in the rural corners of the region but also in the hearts of towns- where there is not a single piece of furniture from kindergarten to primary six.

Scores of newly enrolled school children have been spotted inside unfurnished classrooms, standing on their feet against their will throughout an instructional period, or seated cross-legged on a cold floor in front teachers as though listening to moonlight stories by the fireside.

Deprived-looking parents and guardians, quite uncomfortable with such an unpleasant start for their children and weary of a prolonged wait on government to provide furniture, are lifting kitchen stools to schools themselves for the poor kindergartners to use for lessons until the much-needed relief comes.

“We are all witnesses to the challenges [with] furniture,” the Upper East Regional Director of Education, Jane Sebina Obeng, remarked moments after a tour of some basic schools in the reopening week. “They (the pupils) were sitting right on mats. I’m glad we were there with our coordinating directors. We are going to sit and chat with them for them to support us to get furniture for these young ones. Although the region has been supplied with furniture, they are not for the lower primary.”

The region at present needs over 20,000 dual desks for its basic schools, but it is undersupplied with only 1,180 pieces of furniture, according to the GES.

A thin stockpile of dual desks stood in a heavy rain on the regional premises of the GES when Starr News nosed around the area at the weekend. The Garu-Tempane District and the Kassena-Nankana Municipality are among the areas cited in the region as grappling pathetically with an extremely terrible furniture shortfall.

“We are pleading with stakeholders to resolve this furniture deficit. It is actually having an effect on the academic performance of schoolchildren. Some absent themselves from school when there is no furniture. Parents have provided some furniture. But they are kitchen stools. The nature of the stools they use doesn’t help their handwriting,” Abodeem Kofi Aniah, Headmaster of the Gbani Primary School B, told Starr News in the Talensi District.

Free Education, without your Support, is incomplete - GES tells Parents

Enrollment turnout at the basic level in the region so far has been remarkable, according to observers. It coincides with the kickoff of government’s fee-free education policy for public second-cycle learning institutions across Ghana.

Whilst millions of Ghanaians everywhere have received the free-tuition policy with echoing applause, the GES wants parents as well as guardians to deliver their side of the ‘bargain’ with the level of commitment it deserves.

“Though education is free, government is supporting, there are some basic things parents have to provide for the children, especially to see to it that they are in school on time and every day. When they come back from school, they should be concerned about what transpire in the school- about what they learn,” Mrs. Obeng said.

The GES officials and a delegation from the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC) handed out free fruits drinks, sweets and exercise books to the new young faces during the tour. The gesture was part of a culture of welcoming basic-school beginners in a ceremony known in the country as “My First Day at School”.

Representatives of the Afrikids Ghana and the Youth Harvest Foundation Ghana as well as traditional and school authorities also were on hand to receive the fresh schoolchildren, who were led mostly by their mothers.

“I’m very impressed about the turnout. Quite often, when schools reopen, first day, second day, the turnout is not that good. But this one, I’m very impressed,” the Regional Director commented.

Surprise Awards for Teachers in Talensi

The Talensi District Director of Education, Her Royal Highness Stephanie Mosore, who also took part in the tour, hinted at plans to institute a special award scheme to encourage discipline among teachers in the ultimate interest of the schoolchildren in the district.

The awards, she noted, would go as a surprise to only truly deserving teachers based on recommendations made by a monitoring team.

“As teachers, we are role models, and the influence we have on the children is unlimited. It’s on the way coming; only we haven’t made it known to them yet. Such awards, you don’t make it known. You go round; you do your observation; then, at the end of the day, you pick them. Awards are appreciated when it’s a surprise,” Mrs. Mosore disclosed to journalists after a joint tour of her district by topmost regional GES staff, an RCC contingent and officials of the Talensi District Assembly.