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EDUCATION

Anafobisi community calls for support for school project

The Anafobisi community in the Bongo District, Upper East Region, has begun a self-help project to build a three-unit classroom block for the Kindergarten and Primary ‘A’ school.

Date Created : 5/11/2023 12:00:00 AM : Story Author : Anthony Adongo Apubeo/Ghanadistricts.com

The community is therefore appealing to the Government, Non-Governmental Organisations, philanthropists among others for assistance.

The pupils from kindergarten to primary four, with a population of 233, do not have a classroom block of their own and are currently sharing with the students at the Junior High School in the area.

Anafobisi KG/Primary ‘A’ School is located at Anafobisi, a farming community with a population of about 7,000 and a gateway to the Bongo District of the Upper East Region.

The kindergarten department made up of a mud structure was established in 1993 by the community members but it collapsed in 1999, around the same time that a six-unit classroom block was being constructed by the NGO District Assembly for the JHS students.

Three classrooms had since been borrowed by the KG/Primary pupils while they await their own building.

When the Ghana News Agency visited the school, it observed that due to inadequate space plywood had been used to partition the classrooms for the different classes while some classes were combined.

Mr Albert Akanmiim, the Assemblyman for the Anafobisi Electoral Area noted that the lack of classroom block was not only adversely affecting academic performance of the pupils in the area but had demotivated the pupils from going to school, leading to a decline in enrolment.

He said some of the pupils were still in the school because it was a beneficiary of the school feeding programme, adding that some had dropped out while some few parents who were well financially had withdrawn their wards to better endowed schools, especially the private ones.

“The situation has put the pupils at a disadvantage in terms of academic performance and they cannot compete with their colleagues in other schools,” he said.

“As a community we have mobilised ourselves to begin to construct a three-unit classroom block with an office and a staff common room for the primary but are facing funding challenges and we are appealing for help,” he said

He said engineers from the Bongo District Assembly had helped them to measure the structure while community members had already dug the foundation and held a durbar to raise funds for the project, adding “the community members who are into building and construction are ready to offer their services for free to help construct the school, so we are appealing for assistance.”

Naba Thomas Anayaneba II, Chief of the area, said the school did not have furniture compelling the children to learn on the bare floor and appealed for help to ensure that the area was not left out on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals particularly goal four.

Ms Rita Atanga, the District Chief Executive for Bongo, lauded the efforts of the community members to start a self-help project to complement government’s efforts to provide quality education to the children.

She said the Assembly would endeavour to support in any way it could and appealed to other organisations to come to the aid of the community.