Six classes run in one room?

Due to the lack of classrooms, about 40 pupils of classes One to Six of the Dinkrah Local Authority Primary School in the Nkoranza District of the Brong Ahafo Region, have been put together and are being taught in the same classroom housed in a local church.

Moreover, the only two teachers of the school also sleep in one small room because of lack of accommodation.

The national executive members of the Brong Ahafo Students Union (BASU) disclosed these to the Times after the union’s Central Executive Committee meeting held at the University of Ghana in Accra.

Mr Francis Obiri, National Secretary of the BASU, said that the Kinkrah L/A Primary school building collapsed some time ago and a new one had not yet been built. He said that schools in other farming communities in the district such as Kyeredeso, Nsuenso, Abountem and Meta were in similarly poor conditions.

Mr Obiri said that when BASU members recently embarked on an educational tour of the Nkoranza District they saw pupils at Abountem lying prostrate while writing. Others also sat on stones under trees, their books on their laps, taking notes.

He appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ministry of Education and non-governmental organizations to help those deprived schools. BASU also appealed to the Ministry of Education to re-establish the Teacher Training College at Nkoranza, which was closed down some years ago.

The Union had congratulated the chiefs and people of Fiapre, near Sunyani, as well as the Catholic Church for the amicable settlement of the disagreement over the establishment of the proposed Catholic University at Fiapre.