DUTCH VOLUNTEERS DONATE FURNITURE TO KOBILMAGU SCH.

Following Chronicle’s earlier publication about the high deprivation and poor conditions of the Kobilmagu Sobriya Islamic School, one of the government schools in the Tamale Metropolis, three expatriate volunteers have donated 60 pieces of dual study desks to the pupils at the nursery class of the school.

Before the donation, over 330 children at the Kindergarten were crowded in two classrooms, without study chairs.

The alarming situation of the children was the fact that they sit on their eating bowls to study each day, and use the same bowls for their School Feeding meals.

Some of the children sometimes urinate in their bowls when classes are in progress, and most of them use the bowls unwashed for their meals.

At a short durbar to present the furniture, the Volunteers from Royal Netherlands, Yvonne Brusse, Denise Van Wijnen and Arian De-nijs their decision to support the children was influenced by their dissatisfaction about the harsh conditions under which the children especially those at the KG were studying during their first visit to the school.

They believed the children ought to be given the best of treatment to enhance their studies, since they represent the future of Ghana. According to them, the good or bad treatment that would be given to a child in or out of school would determine the quality of his or her adulthood.

The Headteacher of the Kobilmagu Sobriya Islamic KG, Madam Baba Fati, said the children in the school were willing to study, but they are being turned away by the lack of classroom accommodation.

She noted that as a result of the School Feeding Programme most children in the community voluntarily come to the school for enrollment but there are no classrooms.

Madam Fati therefore, called on the government to provide the requisite support to the school in order to change the poor conditions of the pupils.

The Kobilmagu Sobriya Islamic School was established in 1988 by one Alhaji Alhassan Sulemana with 87 children, but it was taken over by the government in 1992, and now has a student population of almost 900.

It also has 35 teaching staff, from the Kindergarten to Junior High School, but unfortunately, the school lacks the necessary infrastructure, especially, at the lower primary level.

This is because government, the Ghana Education Service, and for that matter the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, have since 1992, failed to support the school with even a single structure.

The Headmistress of the School, Hajia Salamatu Mahama, also complained about the general conditions, which she said, were making teaching and learning very difficult.

According to her, even though the school was one of the best performing in the Tamale Metropolis, it lacked so many facilities, including classrooms, furniture, library and computers.