Correspondence from the Eastern Region

Form Two Junior High School (JHS) students at the Klo Djekiti M/A Basic School in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality are appealing to the government to connect the community to the national grid so they can have electricity to enhance their learning.

Making their appeal in an interview with Ghanaweb's Eastern Regional correspondent, McAnthony Dagyenga, at Klo Djekiti, the pupils also requested for a computer lab in their school to enable them to access practical ICT teaching and learning.

“I am a student in JHS two. We don’t have light here. In the evening we find it difficult to learn. So, we want the government to provide light for us,” 16-year-old Bernice Tetteh said.

“I am the school prefect at Oborpa-Djekiti M/A. We need a computer lab. We want the government to bring us computers so that it will make ICT learning easy for us,” another pupil appealed.

The pupils indicated that since childhood they have never seen electricity in Klo Djekiti.

According to them, they are unable to study in the evening due to darkness in their community. This situation, according to authorities, impedes the performance of the pupils in the yearly Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

Meanwhile, a number of electricity poles meant to connect Klo Djekiti to the national grid have been left to the mercy of the weather since 2016.

According to a resident, the poles were brought to the community by the Member of Parliament for Lower Manya constituency, Ebenezer Okletey Terlabi, before the general elections in 2016 and assured them that they were soon to start enjoying electricity but that has not happened to date.

When Ghanaweb called the Municipal Chief Executive of the Lower Manya Krobo Assembly, Simon Kweku Tetteh, earlier this year, he indicated that his outfit was on course to fix the needs of the community.

Klo Djekiti is a remote farming community. When Ghanaweb visited the community earlier this year, we observed that they lacked access to potable water as the two boreholes there had broken down for years. Residents had to rely on an algae infested stream as a source of water.

Again, the road leading to the community from Oborpa, about six kilometres is woefully deplorable. Only okada (commercial motorbikes) can ply the road to Klo Djekiti and its surrounding communities. A bus goes to the community once every market day.

When Ghanaweb visited the community again in December same year, the two boreholes were fully functioning providing potable water to the community members. The Latter-Day Saints Church, under its Sustainable Water Sanitation and Hygiene programme, had gone to the aid of the community by rehabilitating the two boreholes.

Also, the once deplorable road leading to Klo Djekiti has been partly leveled by the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Samuel Nuertey Ayertey, and currently, it is quite motorable even though some portions of it need proper engineering.

One of the only two commercial bus drivers who ply that road, in an interview with Ghanaweb, appealed to the government to consider tarring it since that would attract more buses to the community and reduce the high cost of okada fares for the residents.

Presently, okada which is the only frequent means of transport in the community charges between GH¢10 and GH¢15 to transport commuters to various destinations.

Some of the pupils who live in adjoining communities such as Trawa, Anummako, Akomakompa, Oguenya, Otsitsee, Yongosisi, Ketem, Patsunya, and Gbagblam are unable to board the okada due to the high cost of fares and are therefore compelled to trek for over an hour to school every morning.