UW/R: Dabillipuo residents appeal for befitting classroom block as school reopens

The residents of the Dabillipuo community in the Wa East District have decried the poor state of the classroom infrastructure in the community, which they described as unfit for children’s education in the 21st century.

They said the current state of the building, which was used as classrooms for the children was nothing short of a “death-trap” as it could collapse at any time, especially during this raining season.

Mr Andrews Dari Dagil, the Chairperson of the Dabillipuo School Management Committee (SMC), told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at the community that they were risking their children’s lives under that structure due to the importance they had attached to education.

Prioritising education of their children, the Dabillipuo Basic School started as a community initiative in 2007 with grass tents as classrooms and Senior High School graduates as teachers.

The community contributed to paying those volunteer teachers monthly in efforts to bring early childhood education closer to the children until the government took over in 2011 and posted teachers to the school.

The community members subsequently contributed and constructed a mud structure to serve as classrooms which attracted children from nearby communities, who would have otherwise not been in school due to long distance from their communities to the nearest school at Kpaglahi.

The school currently had a population of over 200 learners from Kindergarten to Basic five, with five teachers but lacked befitting classrooms to enhance teaching and learning.

During a visit to the school the GNA observed that parts of the roof were tattered, some roofing boards hanging in the classrooms, stagnant water in some of the classrooms and visibly cracked and fallen walls.

Mr Dagil indicated that the structure, which ought to serve as haven for learners and teachers,

was rather life-threatening, forcing the school to close any time it rained or threatened to rain.

“We are trying to build up the school, but we are exhausted, we are tired of contributing to maintain it.

So, we are appealing to the government and the benevolent community to come to our aid, we need a befitting classroom block for our children”, he appealed. The SMC Chairperson lamented that some parents and guardians in the area were withdrawing their children from the school due to the nature of the structure and excessive contribution to
maintain it.

He added that children whose parents could afford bicycles were attending school at Kpaglahi while others were currently out of school.

Mr Dagil told the GNA that many years of assurances by the Wa East District Assembly of constructing a classroom block for the community had failed.

As Ghana desired to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030, the urgent need to provide a befitting classroom block for the Dabillipuo community could not be overemphasised.

That would encourage school enrolment and retention to help achieve target 4.2 of the SDGs, which sought to “ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education” by 2030.