body-container-line-1
01.12.2004 Regional News

New primary school commissioned at Nyapienya

01.12.2004 LISTEN
By GNA

Accra, Dec. 1, GNA - Mr. T. K T. Agban, District Chief Executive for Dangbe West, on Wednesday commissioned a new three-classroom primary school block for the people of Nyapienya near Kasunya in the district. The school block was built to cut short the walking distance of about five kilometres that children had to make to the nearest village Kasunya to attend classes.

The village, a predominantly farming area is described by Mr Agban as a cut off area as it is virtually inaccessible because there is no road and vehicles had to struggle through the bush on pathways to get to the village.

Mr Agban said two pupils aged seven and nine were said to have been be washed away in a flood as they struggled to cross over to the next village in 1998 to attend classes. He said: ' I was touched when I heard about the death of the children in 2003," adding that as a result the district and the government made efforts and within one year, the building was put up to save other children from such hazard.

He said there would have been a lot of inconvenience and chaos, if the facility were not there.

He said the district had awarded needy but brilliant children scholarship in both the second cycle and tertiary institutions to enable them to complete their education.

He said under the GETfund four schools in the district would also benefit from the scholarship scheme, adding that school children in Nyapienya, which was deprived and lacked social amenities, would be considered.

Mr. Agban urged the parents to allow their children to go to school so that the facility would not become a white elephant. He said the Ministry of women and children's affairs had approved a loan of 30 million cedis for the women in the area, who requested for financial assistance.

Miss Margaret Ashiley, Assistant Director of Education in the district said the Ghana Education Service would do its best to post teachers to the school.

Accommodation was considered a problem should the teachers be posted to the area and called on the people to find convenient accommodation for the teachers who would be posted there. He said World Vision International had provided water filters for deprived communities and Nyapienya school would be added to the list so that the teachers would have good drinking water.

She assured the people that the GES would expedite action to absorb the school into the public system.

Mr Mike Adoma, the only teacher in the school of about 87 pupils when asked how he is able to teach the three classes, said he divides the time so that he could attend to each class one after the other. He said, he is paid hundred thousand cedis per month and appealed to government to consider increasing the amount. The occasion was one of joy and sadness as the people sang and danced and also observed a minute silence in remembrance of the two children who perished in the floods. Dec. 01 04

body-container-line