Wayo-Kope pupils study under trees due to lack of classrooms

By Kingsley Mamore

Wayo-Kope (B/E), July 19, GNA – Pupils in Wayo-Kope D/A primary school in the Sene East District of the Bono East Region are learning under trees due to the lack of classrooms, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) has learnt. 

The pupils, mostly at the kindergarten level and lower and upper primary use stones and logs as chairs because they do not have desks, however, the situation at upper primary level was no different. 

The condition in the upper primary level were deplorable as children sit on the cracked cemented floor to write exams while others use wooden benches made by the school’s Parent Teachers Association (PTA). 

Some teachers, who spoke off record for fear of victimisation expressed deep concerns over the situation. 

Mr Bernard Apeku, the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) Chairman, told the GNA during a visit that teachers faced many challenges while conducting lessons under trees. 

He said school usually closed early when it was about to rain to enable the pupils and teachers to go home for shelter and that had affected them tremendously. 

Members of the School Management Committee, however, say the Sene East District Assembly had neglected the school. 

Mr Dor Gideon, the Assembly Member of Old Nkomi lectoral Area, said lack of classrooms and furniture reduced contact hours and made teaching and learning unattractive. 

He told the GNA that several letters written to the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the District Assembly had been responded to. 

The Assembly man called for assistance from government to provide classrooms and furniture for the school children. 

On January 25, 2023, eight school children got drowned in the Volta Lake on Monday after a canoe on which they were traveling to school at Wayo-Kope D/A primary school capsized. 

The children, numbering 20, were crossing the Lake from Atigagorme, a fishing community in the Sene East District of the Bono East Region, when the disaster occurred. 

GNA