The Results of Bureaucracy And Poor Maintenance Culture In Ghana

The Ghanaian lazy attitude towards maintenance has claimed a lot of innocent lives over the years. The gory incident which occurred at Jambra Methodist Basic School on the early hours of tuesday January 31 at Asikuma Odoben district in the Central region shows the reason why we should remove our political lenses in dealing with issues which matters most.

We have been advised by the best man of the land to be citizens not spectators. The reports indicate that, there was evidence of cracks in the building and several reports were made but those in charge didn't find a way to maintain the building. 8 children have so far died and others have sustained injuries.

We have been convinced that, there are no schools under trees but the reality is that schools under tree exist and even those which were built years ago are in a deplorable state. Kafui Winner's visit to schools in the Upper West Region revealed that, there are many schools with cracks and broken walls but teaching and learning still take place in these schools. He visited the heads of these schools to inquire about the reason why they haven't closed down these schools .They revealed that, several reports on these classrooms have proven futile.

Where is the conscience of the Ghanaian leader?
This scenario shows that it is not because the authorities are unaware of these things. Several reports are sent on daily basis but they have deliberately refused to show up .

The authorities are comfortably living in their ultra modern state of the art offices in the district regional and national capitals while the lives of hundreds of students and teachers continue to be in serious death traps.

Every year, the amount of money allocated to the Education Sector especially the Basic Education level is higher than the rest of the sectors. But the sector continue to face enormous challenges.

The 'Ghana man' apathy behavior has been a roadblock to our progress as a country for quite a long time now. When contracts are given to build schools, these contractors use inferior materials to build the schools so that they can get surplus of their budget estimate. Many schools across the country are not in good shape but necessary efforts have not been taken . Should we always watch people die before we attend to critical issues like this?

Leaders are unconcerned because their kids are schooling in abroad or good international schools.

We are losing it as a society. Our maintenance culture is very poor. Even when funds are given to maintain these schools, those in charge sit on the money accrue to development.

Most of our leaders are interested in driving SUVs and living a luxurious life whiles those who gave them power to exercise on their behalf continue to perish.

It's very rare for an Education Minister or Regional Education Director to go round schools in the under served communities to monitor the condition of the learning environment. When an issue of national importance is reported, the bureaucratic process alone will discourage you from following up. Is this the leadership Ghanaians deserve from the Education authorities?

The attitude of waiting for a disaster to happen before efforts are taken should stop. Education is a basic right and no child should go to school in a dungeon like some of the structures in the Upper West region.

The welfare and well-being of school children and their teachers should be taken into consideration.