Over 300 Basic Schools In Tamale Need Classroom Furniture

Alhaji Mohammed Haroun, N/R Dir. GES

Three hundred and sixty-two (362) basic schools in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital of Ghana, currently need over eleven thousand classroom furniture, Metropolitan Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES) Mohammed Saani has revealed.

Aside the problem of inadequate classroom furniture, many of the schools in the metropolis, he said, also lacked textbooks, to the extent that in most schools the ratio was 2 or 3 pupils to a textbook.

In an interview with Savannahnews shortly after the reconstructed Queen Elisabeth School was handed over to him by the legislator for Tamale Central Constituency, Mr. Saani partly blamed the situation on churches taking over schools in the city as venue for their religious activities.

“Aside the fact that some of the furniture are too old and easily breakdown very often, the pressure on them is too much. This is because, a lot of churches hold services in many of the schools and they use these furniture”, he alleged. 

He further cited too much congestion in most basic schools located within the city saying “there are classrooms with about 50 to 80 pupils and this can also put too much pressure on  schools’ resources such as furniture and teaching and learning materials”, Mr. Saani indicated.

Picture from file                                                                                                      

The GES Director, Mr. Mohammed Saani, therefore, appealed to government and the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to urgently step in to provide the schools with new furniture. 

Built in the early 1960s for children of medical doctors and other health personnel, the Queen Elisabeth School ran only a kindergarten school system until 2012 when the legislator for the Tamale Central Constituency Mal Zali Naa Alhaji Abdulai Inusah Fuseini decided to reconstruct it to add more classrooms and auxiliary facilities.

Currently, the school now run kindergarten in addition to a primary school system. With the support of the Ghana Education Trust Fund, a one-storey building was put up to replace the old school building which was built in 1963. The new building also has facilities such as a playing centre and a well-stocked library.

The legislator who is also Minister of Roads and Highways, challenged his constituents particularly parents to make deliberate investments towards their children’s education now and in the future. He promised to also continue to provide them with support and opportunities to complement their efforts in trying to provide education for their children.