Five hundred and sixty basic schools are in a dilapidated state or are under trees in the Upper East region.
This was revealed to a1radioonline.com by the Upper East regional Deputy Director of education, Raymond Abatanie on the sidelines of a media interaction program organised by the Northern Network for Education (NNED) in the Upper East regional capital, Bolgatanga.
According to him, the number was realised after the Ghana Education service conducted an audit of the various basic schools in the region when a school building collapsed and killed some pupils in the central region.
Although he could not give the breakdown according to districts, Mr. Abatanie mentioned that the number of schools in a very bad shape is alarming but the service is handicapped and cannot renovate or build new buildings for these schools.
“We knew the problem was there but we haven’t had budgetary allocation for the maintenance of these structures. Some of them, since colonial days that they were put up, they have not had any renovation. For the past seven, eight years we haven’t had budgetary allocation even overrun cost to run the offices. So the problem persists.”
He indicated that the issue of the infrastructural deficit is not limited to just school building but also offices for the Ghana Education Service.
He mentioned that seven districts in the Upper East region do not have offices and they either use rented apartment or some classrooms in schools which are already challenged.
“As for the regional office of the Ghana Education Service is heartbreaking because, for over forty-one years, the building has not seen any renovation. You can attest to it that the service is challenged when you walk past the building and you can see from the building.”
By: a1radioonline.com/Ghana
