Kwabena Duffuor takes “Ghanaian Dream” to Trekume Basic School

Kwabena Duffuor, the former minister of finance in the NDC government, has intervened to support the renovation of a dilapidated basic school in the Anloga District of the Volta Region.

The initiative is in line with Duffuor’s “Ghanaian Dream”: to see every child in Ghana go to school under the best learning and teaching conditions.

The intervention has been made possible through the support of the Duffuor Foundation, a charity the former minister founded, collaborating with the Livingstone Foundation in a private partnership to renovate the dilapidated school.

The project is fulfilling the organisations’ shared belief in the importance of supporting education for children at the basic level.

Duffuor made a road trip last Friday (17 June 2022) to the school, where he expressed shock at the deplorable state of facilities and pledged to contribute immediately to give the school a facelift that will enhance teaching and learning.

Well-timed intervention

The dilapidated Trekume Basic School – which serves about seven communities, including Tregui, Trekume, Dosukope, Blemezado and Azanu – has not been renovated since it was established more than 30 years ago.

The school has a growing intake of roughly 350 pupils, but with the deplorable structures in situ, the students share the compound with wild birds, rodents and other vermin. Walls and parts of the flooring in the classrooms have developed deep cracks and the state of windows and roofs, which have been partly ripped off, makes teaching and learning impossible during the rainy season.

Dr Duffuor’s timely intervention came in response to appeals by the school’s headmaster, Isaac Boni. The headteacher began ringing alarm bells about the school’s infrastructural soundness, describing it as a looming disaster that is negatively affecting pupils’ academic performance.

“We are not happy with what we have seen here,” Dr Duffuor told the Trekume community at a groundbreaking ceremony to start renovation and repair work on the school. “Our children should have a more decent environment to stay in and learn and I think we can change this situation – it must be done.”

Dr Duffuor, who is also a former governor of the Bank of Ghana, said the initiative is in line with his Ghanaian Dream vision, which aims to give equal opportunities to ordinary Ghanaian people in every aspect of life, including the right to quality education.

Opportunities for all

“We are reminding ourselves that the situation we have seen today is deplorable and something must be done about it,” Duffuor said. “The Ghanaian Dream means that everyone must be given equal opportunities.

“We have children staying in air-conditioned classrooms somewhere in Ghana here and we have our children in dilapidated classrooms here [Trekume Basic School], but they will be taking the same exams. How will these children here achieve the same results as those in the nice environments?” he asked.

Repair work on the six-unit primary classroom block and another, three-unit JHS block will be completed within a year from now. In addition to the repair work, new ancillary facilities will be added to the school to make it a state-of-the-art facility.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, a leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress who is rumoured to be preparing to run in the NDC’s 2024 flagbearer contest, also recently came up with another private initiative, dubbed the “Ahoto Business Project”. This is meant to empower Ghanaians financially and bring relief to NDC party executives in all 275 constituencies across the country, as part of his bigger vision of the “Ghanaian Dream”.

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