The pupils learning on the floor
Pupils of Jimli AME Zion Primary School in the Mion District of the Northern Region have been compelled to learn under a dilapidated structure with no tables and chairs.
They sit to learn and write on the floor and it is affecting teaching and learning in the area.
When DAILY GUIDE visited the school, there were deep cracks on the building, the floors were dusty, and big holes were on the roof of the building.
There were also not enough classrooms and the teachers had been compelled to combine Primary One and Two into one class as well as KG1 and 2 into one class.
Some of the pupils who spoke to DAILY GUIDE, complained about neck and back pains as a result of lying and sitting on bare floor to write for long hours.
“We have been lying on our bellies because we do not have furniture in our classrooms, some of our colleagues don’t come to school often because there is too much dust in the classroom. We are appealing to government and philanthropists to provide us with furniture and also build our school for us,” the pupils stated.
The Jimli AME Zion Primary School was established in 1981, and the school building had never seen any form of renovation.
Haruna Amadu, the Assistant Headteacher of the school, said the current state of the structure was a great concern to the school authorities as it poses danger to both the students and teachers.
According to him, because the place is open, it usually takes away the concentration of the pupils and also the weak structure puts everyone there in danger.
He said parts of the roofing of the building had been ripped off by heavy storm and some parts were rusty and it was not helping them to supervise effective classes during the rainy season.
“The classrooms are leaking, and when it is raining, we have to send the children into one of the classrooms which is better, and at that moment, teaching and learning is halted,” the headmaster disclosed.
Mr. Amadu lamented that there were no chairs and tables for the children to use in the classrooms, which had forced pupils to lie on their bellies and sometimes prostrate on the dusty floors to write.
“We don’t have furniture in the classrooms. We can only say we have about seven furniture for the Primary 6, class, but in the other classes they use the bare floor to write.”
He said they had informed the Mion District Assembly and they in turn submitted annual reports to the Ghana Education Service (GES) but nothing had been done about it.
The Sustainable Development Goal 4, which Ghana has signed onto, calls for ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all but the furniture deficit at Jimli AME Zion Primary School is denying the pupils that opportunity.
FROM Eric Kombat, Jimli