Poor road network impedes access to education in Lassibile

Poor road network linking the Lassibile community in the Wa West District to other areas with educational facilities is negatively affecting access to education.

Some people in the community speaking to the GNA said the plight of school children become worsened during the rainy season as the roads become unsafe for children to use.

“Anytime we are on the farm and the children are going to school, we do not feel comfortable because the children can fall in the water on the road”, Madam Fatimata Iddrisu, a resident of the Lassibile community told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the community.

She said due to the deplorable state of the road, a basic school construction project in the community had to be halted because workers could not access the community during the raining season.

“They came to build a school for us but because the road is not good, the tipper truck, which was bringing sand got stacked and left the sand on the road and since then the workers had not come here again”, she added.

The residents noted that the bad state of the road also adversely affected access to timely health care services at the community.

A health worker stationed at the Lassie Health Centre who was at the community to deliver antenatal service told the GNA, on condition of anonymity, that they sometime did not visit the Lassibile community to provide health care services due to the poor state of the road.

“From here to the Lassia Health Centre is just a short distance, but during raining season you have to go and pass a long way, but even now that road too is not good; even when we were coming we nearly fell off.

“Sometimes we don’t force ourselves to come and they too will not come, sometimes someone will be in labour, but they won’t come. When they come later and you ask them why they did home delivery they say the road is not good”, the health officer explained.

She, however, noted that they pardoned such women since it was not their fault to deliver on the way or at home.

Poor road network is a major challenge hindering the development of communities in the Upper West Region and the country in general.

Several services, including; health care and education, are virtually non-existent in some communities.

This trickles down to affect the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particular on health and education.