Pupils of Adrume Municipal Assembly (MA) Junior High School (JHS) in Ketu North Municipality of the Volta region are forced to learn in a dilapidated school block as newly constructed three-unit classroom block remains locked up.
The dilapidated facility was built in 1993 as a pavilion. According to the Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) chairman of the school, Hope Koku Ahiakpe, the facility has served the community for the past thirty years without any major renovation.
Weak walls, fallen doors, broken floors and leakages are the state of the facility. The classrooms are not friendly for teaching and learning as both teachers and learners have to battle with dust.
The PTA chairman told Asaase News that the community has over the years invested in the development of the school but due to a lack of good infrastructure, the academic performance and student population have declined significantly.
A visit to the school on Wednesday (19 June 2024) by Asaase News’s Albert Kuzor revealed that form three students, who are preparing to sit in the upcoming BECE were busy writing their mock examinations under the dilapidated structure.
It is easy to detect the frustration they are going through writing their exams under such a facility, Kuzor said.
Construction of new facility
Luckily for Adrume JHS, a three-unit classroom block facility was given to them by the Ketu North Municipal Assembly with funding from the District Common Fund.
The project was started in 2019 and completed in 2020. The construction of the facility was intended to alleviate the struggle for quality junior high school education in the farming community.
According to a former assembly member for the community, Rebecca Wortordzo, the project was given to the school after several appeals were made to the authorities in the municipality.
Rebecca alleged that, before she left office as an assembly member for the area, she tried to find out why the facility was under lock and she found out that, there was shoddy work done in the classrooms, hence the Assembly was reluctant to release it for use.
Appeal for the commissioning of the block
Chiefs, elders and the youth wing of the community are therefore appealing to the Ghana Education Service (GES) for intervention.
They want the “shoddy work” corrected and the facility handed over for use as soon as possible.
Chief of the community, Togbui Aflimetenu III, through his spokesman, Perfect Kobla Awute, said, “All we want now is for the MCE to come and open the facility for use. It’s been here for too long, look at where our children are learning, no! This is not friendly at all”.
The youth leader of the community, Fred Kobla Awute, also appealed for the unlocking of the block for use.
Reporting by Albert Kuzor in the Volta Region
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