Ibn Timiya T.I Amadiyya School Desperately Needs Help

Most often, we hear of the existence of schools under trees or in dilapidated structures in rural areas where people are still faced with the challenges of serious underdevelopment. However, the situation has just manifested itself in the newly created Sagnarigu District carved out of Ghana’s third largest city– Tamale, in a suburb called Choggu-Manayilli. This reporter visited aschool that was destroyed by rainstorm last year and uncovered how the situation has forced pupils and teachers to learn under terrible weather conditions.

It is the dream of the children of Choggu-Manayilli to go to school every weekday and learn under the guide of their teachers, as is the normin all public and private schools in Ghana. 

However, the dream of these children who are pupils of the Ibn TimiyaT.I Amadiyya Primary and Kindergarten School, one of few basic schools remotely located in the community seemed to be akin to building castles in the air; and this is due to the hapless circumstances in which they have found themselves.

The poor children and their parents have yearned for support towards the rehabilitation of their four unit classroom block which roofings were ripped-off by rainstorm in June 2012, but even though support eventually came from the Assembly, work seemed to be moving at a very slow pace.

The teachers and pupils who spent most part of the last term of the 2011/2012 academic year as well as the first term of the 2012/2013 academic year at home due to frequent rains, have began to dread sitting in the same dilapidated structures as the rains approach once again. 

At the moment, they still come to school every day and sit inside the roofless building as the merciless sun heat scorches them till they close in midday. 

The questions on the lips of concerned residents now are; would government be able to achieve its Better Ghana Agenda? How about the United Nations Millennium Development Goal II which aims at achieving universal basic education by the year 2015, considering the plight of these innocent children who also desire to climb to the top of the academic ladder?

The standard of basic education in the Tamale Metropolis has been falling so sharply over the years. Students’ performances at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in recent years have been very abysmal. From 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, Tamale secured 60^th, 69^th, 88^th, 91^st, 89^th, 98^th, and 103^rd positions respectively, out of the then 134 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the country.    

Assistant headmistress of the school madam Adakudugu Cynthia told The Daily Dispatch in an interview, that school activities have been seriously affected since the disaster occurred. 

She disclosed that the Kindergarten pupils sit under a mango tree as one class whereas the rest of the primary one to six share three classrooms pending when the building would be refurbished. 

Madam Adakudugu noted with deep regrets, parents frequent withdrawal of their wards to enroll in different schools, because of the dangerous nature of the dilapidated structure and appalling conditions in the school. 

The school, according to her has inadequate classroom furniture, textbooks as well as lacked sanitary facilities (toilet and urinals). “The absence of these facilities compel the children to always go into the bush to answer nature call”, she stressed.  

The Assistant headmistress therefore, appealed to benevolent organizations to come to the aid of the school.