Children at Nator-Duori dropout after primary six
School children in Nator-Duori, a community in the Nadowli-Kaleo District, are compelled to drop out of school at Primary Six due to the unavailability of a Junior High School (JHS) in the community.
Those who defy all odds to pursue JHS education had to trek over seven kilometres, risking their lives by crossing a valley to the JHS at Nator.
This came to light during an interaction with some residents in the community, to ascertain some pertinent developmental challenges facing the community as well as some development initiatives in the community.
Madam Rose Naabata, a resident, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the plight of the school children was worsened during the rainy season as the children were deterred by the muddy waters, aside from the challenge of walking long distance.
She cited an instance where her son fell in the muddy water in the valley and had to return home.
“Because of this the children don’t like going to school, after primary six, they prefer going to galamsey site. Most of them (the children) are now doing galamsey,” she intimated.
“We are begging, any person or NGO that can help us to come and build a school for our children so that they can also become better persons in the future to help us and the community to develop,” Madam Naabata appealed.
She also appealed to the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr. Anthony Sumah; and the District Chief Executive, Madam Katherine Lankono to come to their aid by providing the community with a JHS.
Meanwhile, Mr. Emmanuel Kun-inni, the Assembly Member of the area, who confirmed the dire situation to the GNA, added that one other most pressing need of the community as far as education was concerned was access to Kindergarten (KG) education, the educational foundation of the child.
He explained that the KG 1 and KG 2 children were combined in one classroom, which made it difficult for the instructor to handle.
“Building the educational foundation of the children is very important since the foundation of a house determines how strong it will be,” he observed.
According to him, the District Assembly was aware of the lack of a JHS in the community and expressed hope that it would intervene.
Madam Juliana Tekaraba, another resident, indicated that they lost precious lives in the community due to their inability to transport sick persons over a 10km distance to the health facilities at Sankana on time due to the bad state of the roads.
She explained that getting access to a vehicle in the community was a challenge as vehicle drivers desert the community due to the state of the road, leaving the people in the community at the mercy of motorbike or tricycle transport.
Meanwhile, the government of Ghana, through the Minister of Roads and Highways, cut sod for the rehabilitation of 670km of feeder roads linking food production areas and market centres across eight Municipalities and Districts in the Upper West Region, including the Nadowli-Kaleo District.
The 35-million-euro road rehabilitation project is one of the components of the grant of 145 million euros European Union – Ghana Agricultural Programme (EU-GAP).
However, after over a year of the sod cutting ceremony (May 2021), work is yet to commence on the projects, which were expected to be done within the first 24 months of the sod cutting.
Source: GNA