Omanjor Pupils Take Chairs To School As Others Study On The Floor

Pupils at the Omanjor M/A cluster of schools in Accra, are being forced to bring their own furniture from their homes for lessons in the classrooms.

This is because of the deplorable state of their classrooms and the woefully inadequate furniture to sit and study on.

Although such experiences are often reported in some parts of rural Ghana, it appears the capital has not completely overcome these basic problems in totality.

Wooden slabs have been placed on cement blocks to act as makeshift chairs for lessons.

Checks by Citi News indicates that the inadequate building structures for classrooms has also resulted in two separate classes taking place concurrently in the same space.

Not only are the classrooms over-crowded despite the lack of furniture, pupils in the classrooms have to master the skill of writing with one hand while the other hand serves as a table to hold the book.

The school has barely 100 decent dual desks in use for a population of over 2000 pupils.

Over 80 percent of pupils use these makeshift benches made of wooden slabs or sit on the dusty floor.

Parents who can afford, however go ahead to provide furniture for their wards.

Some parents who spoke to Citi News complained about how their wards have to wake up earlier than usual in order to make it early to school in an attempt to get chairs to sit on.

“If you fail to arrive early, there will be no seats for you. My son had to make his own desk yet he struggles for a desk everyday”

“My brother attends school here and he doesn't have a chair to sit on, he had been sitting on the blocks and the woods that is why we brought this desk for him to sit on” One guardian said.

Despite the challenges already confronting the Omanjor M/A cluster of schools, there are also health and safety issues as sanitation is another problem the school is currently faced with, according to Citi News’ Farida Shaibu.

There are over 6 toilet facilities in the cluster of schools, but not a single one of them is convenient for use. The stench emanating from the area is unbearable, and residents have also been complaining about this development.

The Ga West Municipal Chief Executive, Clement Wilkinson, confirmed that indeed the municipality is heavily populated and that the assembly is doing its best to put up more schools to meet the demand of the population.

“Not that they don't have the classrooms, they have, but now they are more than the classrooms, so we have a plan to build additional ones for them. So even today, we are doing some sod-cutting later in the day,” he said.