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Regional News of Wednesday, 24 July 2019

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Agbozume-Kpota E.P Basic stakeholders cry for completion of 1995 school project

The stalled project The stalled project

Management and Authorities of Agbozume-Kpotame E.P Basic School at Agbozume in Ketu South Municipality, have appealed to the Government and other stakeholders to help complete a one-storey 16-room school block project stalled at the ground level since 1995.

The block, according to them, urgently needed to be completed to augment number of classrooms required to enhance teaching and learning.

Madam Agnes Aku Mensah, Headmistress, made the appeal during the school's maiden Speech and Prize-Giving Day in its 76 years history as a school at Agbozume.

She said the school, established in 1943, has a current student population of 667, has produced many notable personalities in spheres of lives, but has not witnessed expansion in its facilities in spite of the rapidly growing student size.

According to her, the management has been forced to merge the school's double stream into one stream as classroom access became acute, creating overcrowding in the classes, making teaching and learning uncomfortable to both the teacher and the pupil.

Madam Mensah cited lack of textbooks and inadequate classroom furniture as other challenges that needed urgent attention.

The school, she said, despite, continue to excel both academically and in extra-curriculum activities, chalking close to 80 percent or above in the annual BECE, with their best individual student aggregates being 12 or 13, involving some females students as well.

She urged all stakeholders, including the Alumni to help the school gain firmer grounding to enable it deliver on its functions of raising and giving strong life foundation to children in the area to advance socio-economic development.

Madam Enyonam Afi Amafogah, Volta Regional Director of Education, paying homage to the founders, management, staff and pupils for the successes chalked so far, said together, the school could become greater to churn out more human resource for the nation.

She said the celebration provides the platform for stakeholder-engagements to transform the school.

Madam Amafogah said the theme about 'rebranding', evokes a vision and a mission of calculated efforts to make the school the foremost hub of skills training, academic excellence and moral upbringing, which schools were supposed to be.

She said for the vision to be attained, it required input of all stakeholders - education authorities, management, teachers, parents, the community and particularly pupils, who should constantly be made aware of reasons they were in school, all other things being equal.

Teachers she said, aside modelling the right behaviour of lifestyles for their student's emulation, should also be well versed in the prescribed syllabi and teaching methods, going extra mile to identify challenges confronting each student academically and help them patiently to overcome them.

Madam Amafogah advised management to be prudent in managing school resources, while the education directorates must also play their resourcing, supervisory and monitoring roles for success.

Reverend Innocent Attipoe, Agbozume-Kpota E.P. Church Parish Priest and the School Manager, in an interview said the situation had been frustrating, hence the decision to hold the day to pull resources to finish part of the stalled block for use, though admitting the over two decades of neglect has had a significant toll on the block.

He said as a result of the acute congestion, which is of over 80 pupils in some classes, three pupils sat at one desk, denying them the comfortability and freedom.