Gbeogo (U/E), Nov. 14, GNA – Pupils of the Gbeogo school for the Deaf in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region, have appealed to Government and NGOs to provide the school with furniture, to facilitate academic work and ease the hardship on them.
Some of the pupils lay on their stomachs in class to write and complain of back pain due to improper sitting posture.
The classrooms of Kindergarten 1 and 2 are virtually empty of chairs for the pupils to sit on while the chairs in classes One to Six and the Junior High School are inadequate.
With a total population of 324 pupils in the school, Basic Two is made up of 47 pupils and has 11 dual desks, 37 pupils in Kindergarten Two with seven dual desks, 42 pupils in basic Three with 13 dual desks and these deficits of chairs run through all the classes including the Dining Hall.
A visit to the school by the Ghana News Agency revealed that some of the pupils were not only deaf but physically challenged but had to find a way to write on the floor.
Master Dennis Ayamga, a Primary Four pupil, speaking on behalf of his colleagues in sign language, interpreted by one of the teachers, said laying on the floor to write was very tiresome and painful as he experienced back pains in the evenings, after school.
“I am very sad about what my colleagues and I are going through. Many of us get back pains in the night as a result of the frequent bending and raising of our heads to write when given notes or exercises on the blackboard”, he said.
Mr Vitalis Niben-Yel Tuolong, the Head teacher of the school expressed concern about how the already vulnerable children were deprived of furniture and other basic needs for effective teaching and learning.
“The school is faced with a lot of problems that hinder effective teaching and learning, but key among these is the furniture deficit in both the classes and the dinning hall. During dinning time, the go in batches to go and eat since all of them will not get seats to sit on”, he added.
Mr Tuolong said the school was also faced with the problem of inadequate staff, accommodation, and security.
“There are 29 teaching staff in the school, four of which are volunteers, one security man for the entire school and limited accommodation for the female students”.
He said the absence of those essential needs for the pupils did not give them an enabling environment to study and joined them to appeal to the Government, donor agencies, and philanthropists to come to the aid of the school.
GNA