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Regional News of Sunday, 16 August 2020

Source: Ɛkoɔba Gyasi Atta Payin, Contributor

Our school is a standing coffin - Denkyira Esaase chief cries

Dilapidated school building at Denkyira Esaase Dilapidated school building at Denkyira Esaase

The chief of Denkyira Esaase in the Upper Denkyira East Municipality in the Central Region, Nana Ade Kwame (III) has revealed plans by his elders and members of his community to stop officials of the Electoral Commission from entering their community to conduct elections come December 7.

According to him, if the dilapidated school in the community, which he has described as a 'standing coffin', is not given a face-lift, they will be left with no other option than to prevent Electoral Officers from conducting the upcoming general elections in the area.

Nana Kwame Ade (lll) says his community has a population of over 2,500 people and that it is very weird to see that the only school, which seeks to nurture and train the younger generation to become responsible citizens has turned into a death trap for students.

This has caused fears amongst teachers of the school and rendered hundreds anxious, who says in the event of an untimely and a heavy downpour, the building could collapse, maim and kill occupants.

"It will be disastrous if I sit for any calamity to befall us with the current state our school finds itself in", he said.

Although the country has seen numerous governments, the over 30-year old school building, which was built with the community's effort, had not seen any government support in terms of renovation until the structure was razed down by an inferno some 8 years ago.

The chief and elders of the community say the Municipal Assembly has turned deaf ears to the numerous notifications served since no pragmatic measures have been taken to put the building on a sound footing to avert a calamity.

"We have duly notified the Municipal Assembly about this situation but unfortunately, no action has been seen as yet", he lamented.

He recounted how they had to embark on a door-to-door spree to convince people in the community to patronize the just-ended Voters' Registration Exercise and how the EC officials had to abandon the structure because it was not fit as a registration centre.

"My elders and I had to go into houses and beg our people to step out and register during the registration exercise. Even the registration officials had to secure their lives by refusing to use the school as a registration centre. " he continued.

Meanwhile, speaking to Solar FM and Adom FM's Reporter, ?ko?ba Gyasi Atta Payin, the Queen mother of Esaase, Nana Abena Agyiri (III) that if the students in the area would not have a conducive learning environment to undertake their academic expedition, she will support the assumption that they are not part of Ghana which will cause them not to vote in the December 7 General Elections.

On his part, the family head of the Esaase stool, Nana Gyasi also maintained that no government has ever helped the community in providing them with its basic amenities.

"We will rally behind our people in every action they take in registering their displeasure by boycotting the 2020 elections because no single government has our people at heart", he emphasized.

The headmaster of the school, Mr Martin Newlove recounted how inadequate teaching and learning materials and the absence of basic facilities have also affected the Junior High School, which looks quite better in terms of its current state.

" I am thinking of how the final year candidates from my school for the upcoming Basic Education Certificate Examinations will perform. The furniture to convey to the examination centre are woefully inadequate. Again, because there are no places of convenience in the school, students take advantage of them to run home and never return to school," he ended.