Headmaster appeals for “emergency” classroom block to avert closure of school

Mr Ephraim Dzah, Headmaster of Salvation Army Basic School at Agotime-Wudome in the Volta Region, at the weekend appealed to the government to construct an “emergency” six unit classroom block for the school.

This is to avert an imminent closure of the school next academic year.

He explained that the thatched shades under which children from kindergarten to class six were studying had become death traps necessitating the construction of an “emergency classroom”.

Mr Dzah, who called at the Ho office of the Ghana News Agency to make the appeal, said the school, which recorded over 40 per cent passes in the 2012 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), started losing some of its teachers and pupils due to lack of classroom block.

He said before the school went on vacation last term, it tried to hold classes and examinations under trees but bad weather disrupted those activities.

“We tried holding classes under trees but you know the rain and stormy weather disrupted our activities. We were just lucky that our pupils escaped serious injuries during a terrible rainstorm one Friday,” he said.

Mr Dzah said the community, in collaboration with the school’s Parent Teacher Association, put up the existing classroom blocks 25 years ago, which had become a death trap and appealed for quick response from the Agotime-Ziope District Assembly.

He said he had written letters to the “authorities” to no avail and expressed worry that until “something is done before school reopens, some of our children might not come back to the school.”

Mr Dzah said the only government support the school had was the construction of a three-unit classroom block for the Junior High School.

Source: GNA