Special report from Western Regional correspondent

The lives of pupils and teachers of the Nuba M/A Primary School in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region are under serious threat as academic work is conducted in old and dilapidated buildings.

The buildings, which have not seen any renovation since they were built, have developed deep cracks on the walls and all of the pillars that hold them together have developed cracks also, leaving the buildings at the verge of collapse.

The roofing sheets are all worn out, with the sun rays pointing directly to the classrooms whenever the sun is up while the wood and frames are also rotten.

During a visit to the school, GhanaWeb Western Regional Correspondent, Daniel Kaku, observed that some of the roofing sheets on one of the buildings had been ripped off.

It was also observed that the concreted floors in the classrooms had developed holes for long time.

On the same compound, the kindergarten (KG) block is also not in good shape.

Our correspondent observed that a three-unit KG classroom block being constructed by the community has been abandoned due to lack of funds.

Nuba M/A Primary School was established in 1974. The school is currently accommodating about 600 pupils.

Speaking to GhanaWeb, the Chairman of Nuba Electoral Area Unit Committee, Mr. Prosper Amevo said the situation was affecting academic performance in the school.

He also said the school was facing so many challenges without any support coming from anywhere.

He emphasized that anytime it rains during school hours, teachers have to be compelled to close school and allow pupils to go home.

"We have so many problems in this school, majority of our school buildings had been destroyed. Anytime the rain falls, the pupils don't get any place to sit to learn. This building that you see behind me is an old structure, we built it around the 1990s", he stated.

"The block over there too is deteriorating and anytime it rains, the Madam has to close the lesson and allow the children to go home. We have a lot of problems here. We don't have any classroom block to accommodate the KG pupils so we have turned the school's workshop into a classroom for the KG pupils", he added.

He, therefore, appealed to duty-bearers to come to the aid of the school by renovating the existing dilapidated classroom blocks for the pupils and teachers.

A member of the School Management Committee (SMC), Egya Erzoah expressed worry over the situation and stated that authorities had failed to support a face-lift for the school.

He further emphasized that they had written letters to the Jomoro Municipal Assembly and other companies in the area on various occasions about the situation but had not received any positive results.

He expressed fear that if care was not taken, the dilapidated buildings in the school would collapse on the pupils and their teachers.

"...anytime the rain falls, the roofing sheets leak and also disrupt learning. The school has over 500 pupils, it has A and B streams. This is the same place they use to do elections and let us assume that if today we are voting here and the rain starts, ask yourself where will we go", he bemoaned.

He is, therefore, calling on government and other benevolent organizations to come and renovate their classroom blocks to prevent future occurrences.

"We are appealing to government and NGOs to come to the aid of Nuba school, we are also appealing to the old students of this school and those outside Ghana to come to our rescue. Government must urgently come and renovate our school buildings for us", he appealed.

Another resident pleaded, "I'm on my knees begging the government to come to our assistance because the current state of the school buildings are very bad".

He added, "this building here contains a lot of pupils and whenever it rains during school hours, the pupils have to go home so we are appealing to government of Ghana to come and see the problem and help us because we also vote in any public election".