By Philip Tengzu
Jirapa, (UW/R), Feb. 4, GNA – Six basic schools in the Jirapa, Sissala East, and Lambussie Districts in the Upper West Region have received 479 dual desks from ActionAid Ghana to help augment the furniture situation in these schools.
The intervention, which would also contribute to improved learning outcomes, is expected to benefit 960 children in the three districts.
The beneficiary schools are: Nindor-Wala Basic School and Ul-Kpong Junior High School (JHS) in the Jirapa Municipality; Suke Primary School and Piina JHS in the Lambussie District and Chalu “A” and “B” Basic Schools in the Sissala East Municipality.
The intervention was through ActionAid Ghana (AAG’s) regular giving income with resources mobilised from philanthropic child sponsors from the United Kingdom and Greece.
Speaking at a brief event in Jirapa to hand over the furniture, Mr John Nkaw, the Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, noted that the NGO was committed to contributing to enhancing quality and inclusive education and improving learning outcomes for pupils in Ghana.
He explained that the donation would help advance the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, which sought to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning for all by 2030.
Mr Nkaw said the intervention was also in furtherance of the AAG’s Strategic Priority Three of its Country Strategic Paper VII, which focused on promoting access to quality and gender-responsive public basic education.
The AAG had, over the years, implemented many interventions in the region geared towards improving the education sector, including the donation of 147 school furniture to the Konchuri basic school in the Jirapa Municipality in 2023.
Mr Nkaw mentioned the 2018-2030 educational strategic plan, the Complementary Education Agency Act, 2020 (ACT 1055), and the school re-entry policy as some significant steps the Ghana government had taken to enhance education in the country.
He appealed to educational stakeholders of the beneficiary districts and schools to maintain the furniture to ensure they served posterity.
Mr Huudu Kunateh, the Jirapa Municipal Director of Education, expressed gratitude to AAG and its partners for their contentious support of the education sector in the municipality.
He said despite efforts of the directorate to create a conducive environment for teaching and learning to thrive, inadequate furniture had been a major setback to those efforts and said the AAG’s intervention was timely.
“It is pathetic that sometimes you go to some of these schools, and you see people creeping on their bellies like snakes in the classroom, just struggling to write”, Mr Kunateh stated.
Mr Alexander Boore, the Head Teacher of the Ul-Kpong Primary School, assured the benefactors that they would put the furniture to good use.
He, however, appealed to AAG to also consider providing furniture for the teachers in their subsequent interventions.
Mr Anthony Adangabe, the Jirapa Municipal Director, Central Administration, emphasised that the role and contribution of AAG to educational development in that municipality could not be underestimated.
While commending AAG for the intervention, he said it was inappropriate for children at the kindergarten level to start school sitting on the floor to learn as that would present a negative image of education to the children.
GNA