City authorities urged to put up storey building classroom blocks

Nii Amasah Namoale, Member of Parliament for Dadekotopon Constituency has urged city authorities to consider putting up storey buildings as school blocks because most schools could not absorb the increases in enrolment due the capitation grant.

"A good number of children in my constituency are still not in school, not because of fees, but that school authorities say their classroom are full and would not admit beyond their capacity," he said.

Nii Namoale, who said this when he inaugurated a 155-million-cedi sanitary facility for the South La Home School Primary and Junior High School said the implementation of capitation grant policy must take into account, putting up storey buildings, especially where the availability of land would be a problem.

Government's introduction of the capitation grant that made basic education free led to increases in primary school enrolment in all districts.

Nii Namoale said: "What is important is that as a nation we implement the policy in such a way that it would be sustainable to match up with the increases in population and for that matter the growth in school enrolment.

"Yes, there are a lot of private schools around but they cannot absorb all the children.

"I appeal to the Education Directors and city authorities to stop putting up ground floor classrooms and instead put up multi-storey classrooms so that as our population grows our children would be absorbed."

Nii Namoale urged teachers to render selfless service to guide the children not only to learn to read and write but also acquire the ability to be able to translate their knowledge into practical life.

He said as a nation we can have all the natural resources but without the knowledge and the ability to transform those resources into an activity we achieve nothing and development would be zero.

He said because of the value he placed on education, about 70 per cent of his share of the MP's Common Fund went into education, which largely had enjoyed the support of his constituency members.

Nii Namoale said the sanitary facility, which comprised washrooms for the staff and pupils, was built with funds from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) through his initiative.

Expressing gratitude to the MP for the gesture, Mr Manasseh Doku Agamah, Officer in-Charge of Kpeshi District School, charged the school authorities to maintain the facility at all times.

He said the old washroom facility, which was constructed in the 1970s never saw any maintenance.

"It broke down so many years ago and (toilets) for the teachers and pupils remained a headache until today," Mr Agamah said.