School under tree and shift system still operative in the capital

“In line with our commitment in investing in people, measures were rolled out immediately to address these problems at all levels. Madam Speaker, I am happy to report to you that remarkable progress has been made. Four years on, about 40% of the over 4,000 schools under trees have been replaced…

Millions of school uniforms, text books, and laptops have been distributed and we intend to work hard to replace the remaining schools under trees” this was said by President John Dramani Mahama when delivering his first State of the Nation's address.

Is Government’s commitment to abolish the schools under trees and the school shift in the capital a farce or truth?

The Domibra Methodist School in the Ga South Municipality is no exception of the school shift system as well as school under tree. The kindergarten section had over 70 pupils for the 2013-2014 academic year but when school reopened this termed, the number had dropped to 20. This according to sources is caused by the unbearable harsh temperature in the afternoon during lesson hours. To keep the children in the school, the teachers keep them outside so the few left can learn. The move has indeed kept the pupils but there are no furniture for the pupils to use. The living condition at Domibra is quite obvious as some pupils come to school in their house attire and bear footed. They sometimes come to school on an empty stomach to even afford a desk to learn with. The primary section which was built to accommodate 40 pupils now holds over 60 with the shift system still in place.

To abolish the shift system, Government started the construction of one storey 12 classroom block, a GETFUND project, has been abandoned by the contractor early last year due to lack of money.

UNDERRESOURCED

The school is the only government school in the area and people walk so many kilometers just to have an education. Despite the pupils effort to learn, it lacks infrastructures such as classrooms, library and an ICT center. The PTA tried to build an ICT center to house the 24 laptops given to the school by government and the project is also suspended due to financial constraint. Lack of water is one of the major challenges the school is faced with. Compassion International used to provide the school with water but that no longer forth coming. According to our findings, the teachers have to buy sachet water to provide the people with drinking water. Authorities at the school through all these challenges have devised a way to concentrate more on the Junior High section by allowing them to use other classrooms to prepare them adequately for their basic examination. Their efforts are however rewarded, with about 90% pass in last year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and 50 out of the 55 that sat for the exams getting placement into Senior High Secondary School.

In an interview with the Independent the Assembly man of the area, Mr. Emmanuel Quartey who is also a teacher in the school noted that, the pupils in the kindergarten section needs a good foundation to develop and face the task ahead in this competitive world.

“The children do not even have desk to sit or write on. We have done our best to help the children but there is a limit to what we can do as individuals” he added.

They used this platform to appeal to Government to complete the 12 unit classroom block for the school. They also called on the general public to come to their aid of the school and help the children since they are the future leaders.