DEATH TRAP: Buokrom M/A Primary in Manhyia nears collapse

The deplorable state of infrastructure at the Buokrom M/A Primary School in the Manhyia North Constituency of the Ashanti region, is affecting effective teaching and learning.

The school which was built about six decades ago, has not seen any major renovation, a situation which is worrying to both teachers and pupils.

A recent rainstorm had damaged part of the Kindergarten block, when Dailymailgh.com visited the school Thursday.

The roof had been ripped off following continuous rain amid thunderstorms earlier this week.

A teacher in the school, who spoke on condition of anonymity told our correspondent that the structure is a death trap and has appealed to the government to come to the aid of the school. According to him, anything can happen if nothing is done about the situation as early as possible.

“We don’t want any calamity to befall the school and we are pleading with authorities to come to our aid”, the teacher said.

Parents

Some parents who spoke to dailymailgh.com are worried about the situation. They have threatened to withdraw their wards from the school.

“I’m so shocked to see this. The safety of my children cannot be guaranteed. I will withdraw all my children from here if the situation remained same when school reopens”, a visibly angry parent with two children in the school said.

Another said, “the government has put a ban on levies… we would have contributed to rebuild the facilities ourselves but we are crippled. Government should do something about this. It is a disaster in waiting”.

Attempts to speak to relevant authorities over the development yielded no results.

GES suspends PTA dues in schools

The Ghana Education Service (GES) earlier this year suspended the collection of levies under the auspices of parent-teacher associations (PTAs) in all public schools across the country.

The directive is to enable the GES to streamline and review all such PTA levies in such schools.

Stakeholders including parents and school heads appear divided over the directive and are calling for broad consultations to address the issue.

Some school heads contend that disallowing them to collect the dues reduces their control of the PTA fund which they use to complement funding of the school activities.

The school heads, who are signatories to PTA Accounts, are unhappy with the directive since according to them, would deny the schools of the supplementary funding.

Source: Daily Mail GH