By Daniel Donkor
The challenges confronting children in Wiasekrom, a farming community in the Tain District of the Bono Region, are as heartbreaking as they are dangerous. For many pupils, the pursuit of education means walking nearly seven kilometres each day to Nsawkaw, the district capital, simply to escape the collapsing structures of their local school.
At Wiasekrom D/A Basic School, classrooms for Primary One to Five are nothing more than fragile huts built from wooden poles and thatch. According to the headteacher, Eric Irigodomo, these structures are so unsafe that classes are abandoned whenever the sky threatens rain.
“Whenever the clouds begin to form, classes must come to an end,” he told GBC News.
Learning in fear
Each morning, the sound of children fills Wiasekrom, but not from modern classrooms. Instead, their lessons take place under leaking roofs surrounded by open fields and grazing animals. Pupils squeeze onto worn-out desks, with no walls to shield them from dust, snakes, or scorpions. Their teachers, chalk in hand, stand before blackboards in spaces that hardly resemble schools.
Only Kindergarten and Primary Six are housed in a proper structure. For the rest, unbearable heat in the afternoons and abrupt closures when rain threatens define their school day. Yet, day after day, these pupils return, holding on to the dream that education can rewrite their future.
Hunger as a barrier
The difficulties extend beyond infrastructure. Wiasekrom D/A Basic is not enrolled in the School Feeding Programme, leaving many children to learn on empty stomachs.
“By midday, pupils often run home to find food, and many do not return,” Mr Irigodomo explained. “Some even skip school entirely the next day because of hunger.”
This cycle of malnutrition and absenteeism has become one of the school’s gravest challenges.
Battling snakes and scorpions
With no walls or doors, the fragile huts leave pupils exposed to deadly creatures. Teachers recount frequent encounters with snakes and scorpions entering classrooms during lessons, an ever-present danger that adds fear to an already difficult learning environment.
Teachers without shelter
For the six teachers assigned to the school, conditions are hardly better. With no staff accommodation in the community, they commute daily from Nsawkaw, a routine that drains their energy and resources.
“We want to give our best, but without proper classrooms, food for the children, or bungalows for teachers, the work becomes very frustrating,” the headteacher lamented.
An appeal for urgent support
Wiasekrom D/A Basic School was established by the community in 2008 and absorbed into the public education system in 2012. Today, it serves about 200 pupils. But without immediate intervention, its future, and that of its pupils, remains bleak.
Efforts to reach the Member of Parliament for Tain, Sulemana Adama, proved unsuccessful. Mr Irigodomo, however, made a passionate appeal:
“We need proper classrooms, inclusion in the School Feeding Programme, and teachers’ accommodation. Without these, the future of these children will remain uncertain.”
A tale of inequality and resilience
The plight of Wiasekrom highlights the stark inequalities within Ghana’s education system. While children in urban centres sit in furnished classrooms, their rural peers risk their lives under fragile huts and endure hunger to chase their dreams.
Yet, amid these challenges, resilience shines through. Each morning, pupils return with exercise books clutched tightly, convinced that learning is their only ladder out of poverty. Teachers, despite daily frustrations, remain at their posts, driven by hope and duty.
Wiasekrom’s story is not only one of deprivation, it is a story of courage and hope. With the right support, these fragile huts could one day give way to classrooms that match the determination of the children who fill them.
