The Saint Paul Basic Schools in the Bolga-Soe community in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region has been bedevilled with infrastructural development to enhance teaching and learning.
With an enrolment of 376 pupils, the school struggles with inadequate furniture and teaching and learning materials.
The situation, according to school authorities, is forcing some of the pupils to drop out.
A visit to the school by our reporter Moses Apiah revealed that in addition to lacking basic infrastructure, the buildings now housing the classrooms need serious renovation in order to avert calamities.
Additionally, Mr. Apiah reports that the majority of the classroom buildings had damaged walls, flooring, and insufficient furniture for efficient teaching and learning at the time of his visit.
The Assembly member of the area, Lambert Akunzebe, explained that efforts by the local assembly to improve the situation continue to go unattended to.
Meanwhile, the old students of the schools, though disappointed with the situation, noted that they have begun putting in measures to assist in dealing with the infrastructural challenges.
The vice chairman of Bolga-Soe St. Paul Primary School Old Pupils Association (BOSPA), Richard Ayamga explained that the association has put practicable plans to assist the schools, but will need collaborative efforts from educational actors to achieve the objectives.
“…a year ago, and through self-help, reinforced the above-mentioned foundation with appropriate pillars to turn it into a two-story 9-unit classroom block. The idea is to fix the annual no classroom’ phenomenon. This BOSPA initiative had the blessing of the Chief, the Tindaana, the PTA, and the entire Bolga-Soe community.”
He stressed that “As we speak in the short term, we wish to complete at least a classroom before September 2020 when the next academic year would have begun. Unfortunately, we ran out of cash when the project was just about 25% complete. The COVID-19 pandemic has also affected our national fund-raising efforts.”
The school is expected to celebrate its 60th anniversary in the coming days.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Moses Apiah|Ghana
