Over 400 New Tagnamo school pupils out of classroom …due building rip-off 5 years ago

One of the ripped off classroom Blocks with pupils playing around it

The future of more than 400 pupils of the New Tagnamo D/A Primary School at Kayang, a farming community in the Mion District of the Northern Region, is in Limbo due to lack of classrooms.

The roof of the four-unit classroom block and adjoining office were ripped-off by heavy storm about 5 years ago, and has since not been repaired, compelling teachers to conduct teaching and learning under a scorching sun.

“The dilapidated nature of the school building force parents to send their children to different schools in the area,” the Head Teacher of the School, Mr Jephthah Adjei Boateng, told the Ghanaian Times during a visit to the place.

When the Ghanaian Times visited the school on Monday morning, this reporter observed that the roof of the four-unit classroom block had been completely ripped-off.

The Reporter gathered that when the situation was getting out of hand, parents from the community removed their children from the school to enroll them in schools at Lanja, a community in Nanumba North District.

Mr Boateng told the Ghanaian Times that the fate of the pupils were in a balance as community leaders were threatening to close down the school if they did not see any repair works on the school.

He said the destruction of the school building was affecting effective teaching and learning, adding that they have drawn the Mion District Assembly Office and the Ghana Education Service to the problem, but nothing had been done yet.

When the Ghanaian Times contacted the Mion District Director of the Ghana Education Service, he declined to talk on it by saying that they were under the District Assembly, therefore it was the District Chief Executive (DCE) who supposed to comment on it.

Many attempts had been made to reach out to the DCE of the area but he was unable to pick up the phone calls as of the time of filling this report.

The Head Teacher added that they had no option but to let the few remaining children study in the sun, than to close down the school but if the community leaders still insist on closing down the school, the school authority would go by it.

“It’s disturbing to come to school to teach, and only to meet just one student,” he lamented.

He further added that teachers posted to the school upon arriving and seeing the nature of the building do not come back again.

Mr Boateng appealed to non-governmental organisation, the philanthropists, individuals and natives of the community to help fix the destroyed classroom blocks.

The Chairman of Parents Teacher Association (PTA) of the School, Makante Inimbiwun, and the Assembly Man for New Tagnamo Electoral Area, Mr Magan Nkatibi Elijah, told the Ghanaian Times that many appeals had been made to the assembly and other agencies, but were yet to receive any response from them.

“I personally brought the District Chief Executive (DCE) of the Mion District Assembly to the school to see the way the children are suffering, but he is yet to address the situation,” Assemblyman stated.

FROM YAHAYA NUHU NADAA, KAYANG