correspondence from Upper East Region

The future of the youth of Tanlengu, a community in the Garu District of the Upper East Region, might be bleak if electricity is not urgently installed in the area.

The only conducive period for students in Tanlengu to study is at night since they are obligated to engage in some household chores after school. Some also help their parents in their means of survival.

The absence of electricity has compelled students in the community to periodically drift to neighbouring communities that have electricity to study at night.

This move does not ease matters, as they are constantly made to go home anytime occupants want to retire to bed.

According to the residents, electrical poles were distributed to them in 2016, with the promise of coming to install electricity in their homes, but the promise has not been realised.

Meanwhile, some residents still have these poles in their homes with the hope that electricity will be installed.

Some students spoke to GhanaWeb's Sarah Dubure regarding their predicament.

A student, Musah Albert, noted that it is only at night that they get the opportunity to study.

"It is only at night that we get the chance to study because of the light matter; you will not enjoy it," he said.

He pointed out that he tried using a torchlight to study a number of times, but that did not yield any results, as his attempt was short-lived due to the discomfort it came with.

"I tried using a torchlight, and that one, it did not help. It was reflecting on the book, and I was not able to keep looking in the book. It made me sleep," he recalled.

He noted that whenever he wants to study, he goes to Tanzuk, a neighbouring community.

He, however, added that going there to study is not easy because he is always asked to leave whenever the people want to sleep.

"That one too is disturbing because you can go to someone's house, and if the person wants to sleep, you have to leave the studies. You can't refuse; you have to go home, so you will not get enough time to study the way you want to study."

Another Junior High School student, Portia Mbawin, cried that the lack of electricity in Tanlengu is adversely affecting her studies.

She indicated that there is a vast difference in her academic performance compared to her colleagues from communities that have electricity.

She stated that she sometimes goes to such communities to study but is made to go home shortly because they want to sleep.

"Sometimes I go to Tanlengu to study, but I don't study well because when they want to sleep, they tell me to go home," she said.

Portia, who wishes to become a medical doctor, fears that her dream might not come to fruition due to the situation at hand.

Issah Awuni lamented that the absence of electricity has made education unattractive to the youth of Tanlengu.

"Most of the youth in Tanlengu see school not to be something serious to them."

According to him, when they fail due to the inability to study, they get discouraged and throw in the towel.

"... because of that, they will not be able to study, and in the end, they will fail their exams. I used to have a friend who stopped schooling because he failed his exams," he recalled.

He lamented that most of the youth who drop out are mostly seen loafing about at 'Bodi' (the centre of the town).

He further lamented that Tanlengu can only boast of a few graduates, which, according to him, is very sad.

"The whole area, people I know that completed university, are not more than 10," he observed.

A parent, Madam Grace, complained that the situation is causing a retardation in the education of their children.

She mentioned that as parents, it is their desire to see their wards study at night, but the absence of electricity does not permit that.

She added that they always encourage their children to go to Tanzuk, a nearby community, to study, but they are always made to go home whenever the families want to go to bed.

"We always ask them to go to Tanzuk and study because they have lights, but when they go, they don't keep long and come back home complaining that they were sacked to go home because they want to sleep," she said.

Madam Grace lamented that there are villages that are more remote than Tanlengu that have electricity, and yet they do not have any.

She revealed that whenever it gets to election period, politicians come around and deceive them by saying they will bring electricity to their community.

Apart from the education of the youth, it is also the wish of Madam Grace that Tanlengu gets electricity so that she and other parents in the community will abandon the menial jobs they do and engage in a meaningful trade, like selling locally made drinks, to be able to cater for their children.

It is the desire of the youth of Tanlengu to have electricity in their community so that they can comfortably study, develop, and be able to match up with their colleagues in other parts of the country and become the future leaders they desire to be.

They are therefore appealing for support from NGOs, benevolent bodies, and all who are capable, to come to their aid.