Regional News of Wednesday, 30 August 2017

Source: Abigail Annoh

Honese M/A Basic School needs teachers - Headmaster

Two classes have been combined and are being taught by one teacher Two classes have been combined and are being taught by one teacher

Inadequate number of teachers at Honese M/A Basic School in Horbor, a farming community within the Ga South Municipality in Accra, has compelled authorities of the school to merge four classes into two.

Classes one and two have been combined into one class as well as classes five and six, thereby increasing the number of pupils contained in a class from about 30 to 60 pupils.

"Currently, we have only nine qualified teachers and one service personnel in the school which is woefully inadequate so have been forced to combine these classes. A teacher supposed to handle about 30 pupils in a class now handles between 50 to 60 pupils and this is really impeding effective teaching and learning activities," the headmaster of the school, Mr. Isaac Tawiah bemoaned in an interview with this reporter last Saturday when a philanthropist and building contractor, Mr. William Nud-Duwor donated four brand new sets of desktop computers to the school.

The items, worth GH¢12,000 was to stock the school's vacant Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) laboratory and boost students' interest in the subject to promote academic performance.

Mr. Tawiah appealed to government to post more teachers to the school as the current condition was an indictment on achieving quality education in the country.

He expressed gratitude to the team for coming to the school's aid saying, "This will help the current students to better prepare for their external ICT examinations than previous batches and we promise to put them into good use."

He further urged members of the public to emulate the kind gesture and support government interventions to promote national development.

The National Projects Officer of GetFund, Mr. Godfred Schandorf who felt worried over the poor conditions prevailing in some schools in the country noted that his outfit was mostly hard-pressed with resources to reach out to the schools in due time.

He however disclosed that a comprehensive plan to facelift all kindergartens in public schools is set to be rolled out by 2018 "as KGs are the start point of the basic education cycle" and urged corporate institutions to share in the responsibility of improving Ghana's education system.

Explaining the motive for the donation, Mr. Nud-Duwor who is also Chief Executive Officer of WILMEF Construction Group said he was touched by the plight of the school after winning a bid to construct a six unit classroom block for the school in 2016.

"I had made a promise during the inauguration of the school last year to help them with some computers for their ICT lab should I get paid for the contract and this gesture is in fulfillment of the promise," he explained.

He urged school authorities to maintain and put the computers into proper use to inspire students to achieve academic excellence and realise their potentials.

Some students and teachers of the school expressed their excitement and gratitude to the team for the donation.