80 pupils crowded in a classroom at Nyakrom

Agona Nyakrom (C/R), Oct 23, GNA - Ms Janet Aggrey, a teacher of the Nyakrom Methodist Primary (B) in the Agona District has expressed her difficulty in coping with 80 pupils she is combining in classes one and two in a classroom.

Narrating her plight to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Nyakrom on Friday before the inauguration of a 23-million KVIP toilet built for the school by the Youth Environment Foundation, said the situation was compounded when the dilapidated four-classroom block collapsed about four years ago.

She said that after the collapse of the building the two classes were combined in one classroom supposed to accommodate 30 pupils. Ms Aggrey stated that the classroom had become congested to an extent that she could not find a place for the teacher's table and chair to mark the register and exercises, adding that she was handling the two classes because there was no teacher to take one of the classes. She pointed out that the school had no Kindergarten making the children to be enrolled in primary one straight from home, which made it extra difficult to handle the pupils.

Ms Aggrey stressed that the Head teacher had made several appeals to the Agona District Assembly and the Methodist Church for the provision of a new school block without success.

She explained that the capitation grant recently introduced by the government had also led to an increase in the number of pupils in the lower primary aggravating the situation of the school.

Ms Aggrey said the situation had compelled her to travel to Cape Coast to discuss the matter with the Central Regional Manager of the Methodist Education Unit, Mr Abraham Blay, without success. Ms Priscilla Adjoa Boafo, a teacher of the school expressed concern about the lukewarm attitude of some parents towards the provision of the basic school needs of their children.

She said some parents had failed to buy books and stationery for their children and even did not give them money for food. Ms Boafo also narrating the ordeal of the teachers told the GNA that when she was posted to the school from training college, she taught her primary four class, on the veranda of the school for two years due to lack of classrooms.

She regretted that some parents walked into the classroom and told teachers that they wanted to send their children to the farm to assist them to weed.

Ms Boafo said some of the children also absented themselves with the flimsy excuse that their parents refused to give them money and stated that, that was hampering academic work of the pupils.