Correspondence from Upper East

Pupils of the Karateshie Primary School at Tempane in the Upper East Region are having a hard time learning following several attacks on their classrooms by some strange, biting, foul-smelling insects.

The insects have made the only primary school in the area serving about 10 communities their a permanent home and not even efforts by school authorities to drive them away have helped the situation.

The insects live in the roof of the school and periodically fall on the floor of the classrooms, disrupting teaching and learning and discomforting pupils and teachers.

“The insects will fall on the floor and you will see that they [pupils] will be running way and you have to bring them [pupils] back and try to sweep them off [insects] and organize the classroom again. Then another badge of the insects will fall again. It is worrisome and the insects have some bad smell that is making us not comfortable sitting in the class”.

Aside the insects invasion, the school is also suffering some structural deficits such as ripped ceiling, loosely hanging windows and weak walls.

The school is also facing a serious furniture deficit for both teachers and pupils.

The lack of furniture forces pupils to sit or lie prostrate on the floor during contact hours. Both situations are impeding smooth academic work at the school which caters for not less than 900 pupils.

Atiah Solomon, a Teacher of the school who spoke to GhanaWeb sources, said the pupils are usually moved away whenever the insects invade the classrooms.

He continued that classes are mostly disrupted and only begin when Teachers are able to drive the insects out. He noted that the school goes barely a day without a visit from the crawling invaders.

The teacher said the lack of furniture in the classrooms leaves the pupils at greater risk in the hands of the strange insects.

“we bring them [pupils] back later when we [Teachers] are able to drive them [insects] away for teaching and learning to continue. Much worrisome is the lack of furniture of the students to sit on”.

He revealed that all attempts, including the use of pesticides, to rid the school environment off the insects have not yielded good results while reiterating the negative effects the situation is impacting on the pupils, Mr. Atiah mentioned that it may take the help of higher authority to find lasting solutions to their challenges.

Issah Ibrahim, the school’s Head Teacher speaking to GhanaWeb sources said it would take a complete renovation of the school to drive the insects away.

He stated that a team of fumigators who earlier visited the school have assessed the situation and said the insect issue is seasonal.

He said the assessment by the experts has diminished their hopes of ever killing the insects.

He fervently appealed to authorities to consider renovating the school to fix that challenge. He also put in some few words of appeal for furniture for the school.