It is obvious that most of the schools in the Bolgatanga Municipality lack classroom furniture, leading children with no option than to lie on their stomachs on floors to learn.
A visit to some of these schools like SOKABISI, KALBEO , AKANTOME primary and Junior high and by A1 Radio revealed that primary one to five had no furniture and this has always compelled pupils lie or sit on bare floor during lesson hours whiles primary six to the Junior High had few dual desks where two to three pupils were spotted sharing them.
Due to these unbearable conditions, some parents have withdrawn their wards to better endowed schools especially private ones where the environment for teaching and learning is conducive.
My first point of call was at the Sokabisi primary and junior high schools, where school uniforms of pupils on a Monday morning had already turned from brown to black as they were seen on the bare floor due to the lack of furniture in their classrooms.
According the headmistress of the school, Madam Bushrell, the furniture issue in the school is very worrying.
“We have a lot of challenges here, especially with our furniture. Except our class six, the whole school from class one to five is almost empty; we don’t have furniture and it is affecting the performance of the children. They lie on the bare floor to write and it is affecting their hand writing seriously. So I am appealing to the general public, the community, NGOs, PTA and individuals to come to our aid.”
Robert Atampugri, the Head teacher of the Sokabisi junior high school who was determined for the betterment of the children and school shared his efforts in getting furniture for his school, especially by meeting the necessary authorities but unfortunately his efforts has not yielded the needed result.
“Sokabisi junior high school is one of the new schools established in the Bolgatanga municipality, the school was established in 2014 and it was an empty class room block that was given to us. As of now, we don’t have furniture, we were only given some few pieces of about 3o pieces of furniture for the whole three class room block. Some of which have broken down and currently form 1 and 2 have empty classes. The first years were made to come and sit with anything they can lay their hands on, other will provide, other may not be able to provide from their various houses, some come with plastic chairs and some with kitchen stools and others will not even come with any. And all these are affecting teaching and learning. We have not been given text books since the start of the school and we have produced our first graduate without a single text book, this is the 4th year of the school, but we don’t have a single text book. I have complained severally to the authorities. Even on the furniture issue, I wrote to the authorities through the municipal director and I followed up, but they always tell me they are working on it.”
Meanwhile Mr. Atampugri stated that his staff finds it difficult to mark their pupils class work because there are no table tables and chairs
The case was not different when I visited Akatome Primary and Junior high schools; a school with over 300 hundred pupils goes through same furniture problem, where pupils have formed the habit of going to school with kitchen stools to use for lessons until the much-needed relief comes.
The headmaster of Akotome Peter Awuni confirmed the unbearable situation, but called on authorities and well-meaning citizens to come to their rescue by providing the school with adequate furniture to enable efficient teaching and learning in the school.
Ngamegbulam Chidozie Stephen/a1radioonline.com/Ghana
