body-container-line-1
27.02.2013 Social News

Tsawoe footbridge is a death-trap for pupils

27.02.2013 LISTEN
By GNA

Bokorvikorfe (V/R), Feb. 27, GNA -Tsawoe footbridge at Bokorvikofe in the Ho- West District has claimed the lives of four pupils over the past four years.

The pupils slipped through the wooden bridge and died while crossing the Tsawoe stream on their way to school.

Two other pupils and a young man developed serious physical defects after falling through the bridge which is about 12 feet tall.

Mr Hope Anagonu, Assemblyman for the area, told the GNA at the inauguration of a two-unit kindergarten block for the community, located some six kilometres away from Tsito-Awudome.

The project is an initiative of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF).

The GNAT/CTF Nkabom project is to relocate the community's pre-school from under trees to a classroom.

Mr Anagonu said a large number of children of school going age at Dakekorfe and Andokorfe on the other side of the bridge are not going to school due to the life threatening nature of the bridge.

'It is very challenging. We have beautiful classrooms but parents will not allow their children to risk crossing the bridge to school,' he said.

Mr Anagonu said conveying the sick and pregnant women across the bridge to access healthcare at Tsito was another great worry and prayed for quick intervention from government.

Moses Kokuvi, a palm wine tapper, said he has five children but only the elderly one in Junior High School   goes to school because the younger ones could not cross the bridge.

He said when his eldest son started school, he (Kokuvi) could not concentrate on his farm.

Mr Sitsofe Frederick Ekor, Headmaster of Bokorvokorfe Basic School, said due to the nature of the footbridge, schoolchildren on the other side of the bridge remained at home whenever it rained.

Mr Emmanuel Bedzra, the Member of Parliament for Ho West, said the reconstruction of the Tsawoe Bridge, construction of access roads and the connection of the area to the national electricity grid were priority projects earmarked for the community.  

Mr Burris Devanney, a representative of CTF, said good things happen when people work together and commended the community for providing free labour for the project.

Mr Emmanuel Keteku, the Volta Regional Director of the Ghana Education Service, said he was grateful to GNAT/CTF for the project and the decision to organise capacity building for teachers in the beneficiary communities.

Northern, Greater Accra and Brong-Ahafo regions  are benefiting from similar projects.

 
GNA

body-container-line