The bereaved families in Saboba receiving the cash donation from the officials.
The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, (GES) Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa and Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, Deputy of Education Minister has led a delegation to Saboba to commiserate with the families of the nine pupils who drown in a river on Friday November 12, 2021.
The delegation paid a courtesy call on the Paramount Chief of Saboba Traditional Area, Mateer John Bowan, at his palace in Saboba.
Rev. Fordjour, expressed the government’s deepest condolences to the people of Saboba and the bereaved families.
“These are young men the whole nation was hopeful that they will be prominent people and contribute to nation building; this is a loss not only to the Saboba Traditional area but by extension a national tragedy,” he said.
He indicated that the death of the pupils should be a lesson and that such incident should never happen again.
“What has happened in Saboba is sending a signal that never again should children entrusted into the hands of teachers be exposed to risk and exploited,” he said.
He was optimistic that the incident of Soboba will bring an end to the phenomenon adding the GES code of conduct will be enforced.
According to him, GES in collaboration with Ministry of Education, Ghana Police Service (GPS) has combined a team of experts of clinical psychologists and counselors to provide counseling to teachers, the bereaved families and pupils to ensure that any psychological effect about the tragedy of the death of the pupils.
The bereaved families were supported with GH¢ 2,000 each.
Mr. Jesse Ngulbi Nyinmakan, a representative of the bereaved families thanked the government for the support and appealed that the Headteacher should not be punished severely because he did not deliberately commit the crime.
The Paramount Chief Saboba Traditional Area, Mateer John Bowan, thanked the government for the swift response when the incident happened in Saboba.
The Paramount Chief Saboba Traditional Area charged the GES to address the issue of teachers sending pupils to their farms to work immediately to prevent any future tragedy.
“This visit should be seen as using one stone to kill two birds, I send my child to school knowing very well that he/she is in school not to be told that they have been sent to a teacher’s farm to work so for me I think he attitude of the teacher amounts to child labor.”
Chief Mateer John Bowan lamented about the poor performance of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results in the district and called on the Ghana Education Service to do well immediately.
“The last time I saw the BECE results, Saboba was last on the table in the region and so we are traditional authorities and if we can’t do anything we should be able to support education of our children so myself and other traditional chiefs are stakeholders and we will do everything possible to ensure that our child get the best of education in this district.”
He expressed worry about the lack of teachers in the district and called on the Deputy Education Minister to ensure that the district gets adequate teachers in the district to enhance teaching and learning.
Nine pupils of the St. Charles Lwanga R/C J.H.S got drown in a river in the Saboba District of the Northern region.
DGN Online gathered that a teacher from the St. Charles Lwanga R/C J.H.S went with about 31 pupils to harvest his rice across the River in Saboba.
According to reports, on their return from the farm, the pupils paddled themselves with two boats and collided on opposite direction.
About 15 on board were able to swim out of the river but nine drown.
Emmanuel Chingna, 35, Headteacher of the St. Charles Lwanga R/C JHS, who was arrested in connection with the drowning of nine pupils of the school in the Saboba district of the Northern region, has been arraigned before the Tamale magistrate court.
The accused person has been charged with manslaughter.
The case has been adjourned to November 29, 2021.
FROM Eric Kombat, Saboba