Assemblyman for the Nayorigo community, Mr Lawrence Ake-emah-Kapoe, has appealed to the Government and Non-Governmental organisations to assist the Nayorigo Primary School in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region with furniture.
According him, almost all the pupils sat on the floor for lessons due to lack of furniture.
He said except primary four which has less than 10 dual desks, none of the remaining five classes had even a single dual desk, he stated.
The Assemblyman, in an interview at the school, said the pupils sat on the bare floor while academic work was ongoing, and those who needed to write laid on their stomachs to do so.
Mr Ake-emah-Kapoe, who was on a monitoring visit to the school said it had only four teachers, Headteacher inclusive, handling the six classes.
“The situation is having a toll on academic work and enrollment has declined from about 600 to 400 pupils over the last few years.”
He said the school did not have teacher’s tables and chairs making assessment very difficult.
He also said, “the school has been battling with furniture issues for some years now and children whose parents cannot afford the recommended desks have bought plastic chairs for their wards to bring to school while the less privileged sit on stones or the bare floor.”
He also said, “the school has been battling with furniture issues for some years now and children whose parents cannot afford the recommended desks have bought plastic chairs for their wards to bring to school while the less privileged sit on stones or the bare floor.”
Also, he stated that teachers could not give classwork to the pupils and monitor them effectively because they always had to bend down or squat to be able to assist them which was very difficult.
Due to the numerous challenges including shortage of teachers, management had decided to combine primary one and two in one class and primary three and four in another class to enable the four teachers to handle the entire school, he added.
He said the transfer of the teachers out of the school started in 2018 without replacement and the school did not get its share of the current posting of teachers to basic schools.
According to the Assemblyman as a result of the challenges, some parents withdrew their wards to better-endowed schools, especially the private ones, making the enrollment decline drastically.
District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Peter Ayamga Ayinbisa, said he noted that the district was faced with a huge furniture deficit but the Assembly was making efforts to improve the situation.
He said some of the dual desks were ready for distribution and promised to supply some to the school.
However, the DCE stated that he was unaware of the situation in the school and gave the assurance to work closely with the District Director of Education to have some teachers posted to the school to enhance effective teaching and learning.
