Pupils at the Whindo-Assekae Methodist Primary & Junior High School in the Effia Kwesimintsim Municipality of the Western Region have disregarded the social distancing protocol in the fight against COVID-19 as to them, it is a luxury they cannot afford due to inadequate furniture, classrooms, among others.

This has been the condition under which they have been studying for a long time, but the COVID-19 pandemic means their challenges have now become a matter of life and death, making the negative impact on academic work pale in comparison.

In some of the classrooms, over 60 students are compelled to share only 20 dual desks.

This means three students have to share a desk.

Those who are not lucky to have a place to sit, either squat or stand in the corner of the class during lessons. And this is replicated in the other classrooms.

A JHS 3 student, name withheld, who have endured this for years, said: “We are not comfortable at all. Coming to school is too tedious. We don’t have enough classrooms or even furniture to do social distancing and it is scary.”

Many of the students also lamented that “most of the furniture are not good, moreover three people sit on one desk. We do not feel comfortable”.

According to the Parent-Teacher Association chairman, Godfrey Aggrey Quainoo, the PTA has decided that each parent pays GH¢30 to buy furniture for the school but some parents are not willing to do so.

Whindo-Assekae is a suburb of Takoradi, the capital of the Western Region, and this is the cry and appeal of the kids of the area: “We need desks to learn.”