Classroom allocation-kindergartens first

Pencils of Promise, an International pro-poor educational opportunities provider, is demanding that kindergarten pupils were considered first for the occupation of classroom blocks it was funding.

Freeman Gobah, Country Director, was speaking at the inauguration of a six-unit classroom block and office built by the NGO, in collaboration with the Agotime-Ziope District Assembly, for the Salvation Army Primary School at Agotime-Wodome.

He said it was absurd that in some schools with classroom space deficit, pupils in kindergarten, the cradle of formal education, were kept under trees, while the much older pupils in the advanced classes schooled in classrooms.

Mr Gobah said in a certain school, 30 kindergarten pupils were kept under trees while a class of five pupils used a classroom.

He said in the two years of operations of Pencils of Promise in Ghana, it had completed 34 projects, 17 in the Volta Region eight of which, so far, in the Agotime-Ziope District.

The Agotime-Wodome project was varied from the normal three-unit block to six units at the instance of Mr Michael Kobla Adjaho, District Chief Executive (DCE), to meet the exigencies of the school.

“I had to negotiate a deal with Pencils of Promise to give the Wodome school six units, with the undertaking that the Assembly would fill-in with cash and materials,” Mr Adjaho told the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

He said education infrastructure provision and repair in the district was receiving a major boost with virtually every community benefiting.

Ephraim Dzah, Headmaster of the School, said the project had come to stop the periodic visits to the bushes to cut sticks and gather shrubs to repair or make new sheds to use as classrooms.

Mr Stephen Dudome, Assistant Director, Supervision, who represented the Agotime-Ziope District Director of Education, suggested that living accommodation for teachers be included in classroom projects in the rural areas.

He said currently many teachers commute daily from nearby towns to schools in the villages for want of accommodation at their stations.

Mr Richard Kudedzi, Volta Regional Manager of Salvation Army Schools, promised to provide logistics for the school to scale up teaching and learning but regretted the rampant transfer of teachers from his Unit without replacement.

Pencils of Promise also on the same day handed over a three-unit classroom block with an office built for the Atsrulume D/A Primary School, off the Ziope-Akatsi road.

Janice Dean, Monitoring and Evaluation Manager of the NGO, told the GNA that funding of the projects were from multilateral sources, including donations from individuals, corporate organizations and foundations.

She said Pencils of Promise was also in the training of teachers to raise their skills.

Another school block, a three-unit classroom block with a library was also inaugurated for Akpokope Basic School.

Alhaji Mukaila, Agotime-Ziope District Engineer, put the cost of the block, hailed by Assembly and Ghana Education Service staff as proficiently executed, at Gh¢56,000.00

It was funded solely from the Agotime-Ziope District’s, allocation of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF).