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EDUCATION

Siiso D/A Primary and JHS appeal for computers

The Siiso D/A Primary and Junior High School (JHS) in the Asunafo South Municipality has appealed to the Government to supply the school with computers to enhance the teaching and learning of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Date Created : 2/4/2019 4:19:16 AM : Story Author : GNA

Mr Sulemana Baba Amadu, the Head Teacher, said the school had not a single computer hence teachers had to use their imagination to teach ICT adding that none of the 30 final year JHS students had used a computer before.

Though the students would write the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in June, this year, they had not been prepared adequately to write the BECE, he said.

He appealed to Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), philanthropists, and corporate bodies to support the school with computers so as to prepare the students adequately to write the ICT.

Mr Amadu was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Siiso during a visit to the school as part of a STAR Ghana Project being implemented by the Sustainable Mission Aid (SMAid), an international NGO, and the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA).

He said the school also lacked adequate desks and textbooks, which had compelled parents to provide chairs for their children.

Under the project, titled: “Enhanced Media-CSO Partnerships for Inclusive Local Governance,” the GJA, in partnership with civil society actors, will carry out media interventions to foster and strengthen the seemingly weak collaboration between the two institutions.

The 18-month project aimed at strengthening media and CSO collaboration for inclusive and accountable local governance in the country.

Strategically, such interventions will drive the vehicle of demanding effective social accountability from duty bearers at the local and national levels.

Mr Amadu noted that some of the students and pupils whose parents could not provide them with furniture had to sit on the bare floor to learn during class hours.

Mr Amadu, who is the Assemblyman for Asarekrom Electoral Area, said lack of potable water was another daunting problem in the area and that in 2015 a typhoid outbreak killed about 10 children.

Meanwhile, construction work on a three-unit classroom block to accommodate the Junior High School students, awarded in November last year, had not started.

The students are currently studying under sheds constructed by the community with support from the Assembly.

Estimated at the cost of GHC273,000, the project, to be executed by Eagle Power Limited, a Kumasi-based construction, will comprise four seater toilet and urinals.

When contacted, Mr Osei Bonsu, the Asunafo District Chief Executive, said the Assembly was facing financial constraints as it channelled virtually all its Internally Generated Fund (IGF) into security.

He said the recurring violence and political stalemate between supporters of the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress in the area, particularly the Sankore Township, was draining the Assembly of its meagre IGF.

Mr Osei confirmed that many of the basic schools in the area also lacked computers and ICT centres and added that the Assembly had appealed to NGOs and civil society actors for support.

Mr Gilbert Asante, the Programmes and Resource Mobilisation Coordinator of the SMAid, expressed regret over the delay in constructing the JHS block for the Siiso D/A and JHS and appealed to the Assembly to expedite action for work to begin.

He advised communities in the area to develop interest and contribute towards the development of the District by monitoring project implementation.