The Gare Primary School in the Talensi District Upper East Region is one of the many schools built by the government of Ghana in its efforts to improve upon the educational sector of the country. Built only two years ago, the school’s building is of modern day standards. However, there is no furniture at the school and pupils lie prostrate on the floors of the classrooms to write.
Looking at the school from outside, everything appears excellent. The school is beautifully painted in a yellow and brown combination, its surroundings, very neat with carefully planted flowers in the compound.
The school is even connected to electricity. In fact, two of the classrooms which are being used as the kindergarten section of the school have fans in them.
However, the problems that the school faces overwhelm both its teachers and pupils. One major challenge confronting the Gare Primary School is lack of furniture. There is no single table or chair for the children to sit on in class. Therefore when teaching is on-going the children sit on the cold cement bare floors to listen to their teachers and then lie flat on their stomachs when it is time for them to write down notes.
Headmaster of the school, Albert Boagre says the situation is hampering effective teaching and learning. He said the children learn in discomfort and it does not motivate teachers to give off their best as a result of the situation.
The negative impact of the absence of furniture at Gare primary school could have been curtailed or perhaps subdued if there were enough teachers to teach the pupils. But for now, having enough teachers can only remain a day dream for the headmaster, who has been forced to double as a classroom teacher because the school is severely understaffed. He said the school currently has two trained teachers, one pupil teacher and four volunteer teachers who are Senior High School graduates.
Little Lucy Zangmi, a JHS 1 pupil of the school has been taking advantage of this situation to practice her dream of becoming a teacher in future. At the time of my visit, she had a free period in her class and used the opportunity to force a whole primary two class who were playing outside as a result of the absence of their teacher, back to the classroom to take them through an English language lesson.
It is not surprising therefore that even the most brilliant pupils at Gare primary school have difficulties in speaking the English language. Four Class 4 pupils struggled to speak English while trying to tell me how they feel about the situation in their school and I could not make out the sense in what they told me, no matter how simply I posed the questions.
Government may have been able to provide a beautiful building for the Gare Primary School but without furniture, learning in this school has almost become impossible. As a matter of fact, a lot of children have moved to far away schools, causing a drastic decline in the population of this school and others have completely dropped out of school.
It is only a matter of time before the determined children who have continued to come to Gare Primary School to get education also dropped out of school. Therefore government must act decisively in responding to the needs of this school.
Credit: Albert Sore
