body-container-line-1
07.06.2016 Education

Opinion leader appeals to government to take over community school

07.06.2016 LISTEN
By GNA

By Bertha Badu-Agyei, GNA
Asiafo-Amanfrom (E/R), June 6, GNA - Mr Jonathan Odonkor, an opinion leader of the Asiafo-Amanfrom community near Akaa Falls, has appealed to government to take over the running of the only school in the area to qualify it to benefit from the school feeding programme and capitation grant.

He said this has been necessitated by growing inability of parents to pay for the feeding and learning materials of their wards enjoying free tuition at the school, the sole basic school in that community started eight years ago, by an American philanthropist, Ms Lauren Grimamis.

'The Akaa Project' a non-governmental organisation (NGO) established by members of the community also provided support for the establishment of the school which also provides basic education to children from four adjoining communities.

Mr Odonkor who is also the project manager of the Akaa Project, said but for that school, children of school going age in those communities would have begun schooling late in life because they would be compelled to make a round trip of eight kilometre daily on foot to attend school at Akpamu, a nearby community, where the area's public school is located.

Currently, the school has a student population of 123 from the kindergarten to primary six and a staff strength of eight made up of seven volunteers from the community who are teaching and a retired educationist who serves as the school's administrator.

Mr Odonkor, recounted how he went through a similar experience when he also used to walk more than eight kilometres to attend school during his childhood and noted that it was the reason why many parents in the village shunned education.

He said for the past eight years, the American philanthropist who provided the school's six classroom block and a library centre, has been paying the teachers and the entire staff from her own resources.

Mr Odonkor disclosed that, most of the teachers are volunteers from the community and some of them have qualifications lower than Senior High School (SHS) Certificate and called for urgent intervention by the government for the school's absorption into the public stream to brighten the children's' chances of continuing to the Junior High School (JHS).

GNA

body-container-line