The late South African president and global icon, Nelson Mandela, once said “education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation.”
All over the world,
people go to school to acquire knowledge, with the hope of getting a brighter
future in the end.
But
when learning in an environment becomes a potential death threat, then the
very future that one hopes to gain through education can rightly be said to be
a bleak one.
Education
is important for building a decent world for all, but without life, the reward
for education may not produce much personal benefits.
It is
for this reason that the continuous stay of pupils at the Kwame Nkrumah
Memorial Junior High School (JHS) & Primary School at Newtown, a suburb of
Accra, has become a major source of worry for parents, residents and teachers
alike.
Deadly Wall Collapse
On
Thursday, May 30, 2019, a head potter (‘kayayo’) and her son died after the school’s
wall fell on them.
The little
boy died on the spot and the mother died at the Police Hospital in Accra, where
they were taken to by some Good Samaritans.
Death Trap
School
authorities and residents were devastated after the incident, which has
heightened their fear about the possible collapse of the school.
Some officials of the school and
residents who spoke to DAILY GUIDE said they were not shocked
about the collapse of the school wall.
Residents and teachers described the
school complex itself as a “death trap” and that it shouldn’t surprise the government,
the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education should the
school collapse one day and snuff out the life of the students as a result.
Why Is That So?
One of the teachers who spoke to
this paper said authorities at the Kwame Nkrumah School had, on three different
occasions, contacted the Ayawaso Central Municipality’s Natural Disaster
Management Organisation (NADMO) Directorate about the dangerous state of the
school, but to no avail.
The Kwame Nkrumah JHS & Primary
School was built by Ghana’s first democratically elected president, the late Dr.
Kwame Nkrumah, in the latter part of the 1950s and the early 1960s.
The school is more than 60 years old,
but residents disclosed that it has not received much attention from
governments over the years in terms of renovation.
A resident who has lived around the
school for about 50 years, Eric Opare Affum, told DAILY GUIDE that the only
renovation the school has received since he moved to the area was a painting
done by a corporate institution.
According to him, authorities have paid
deaf ears to several concerns raised by residents about the poor state of the
school.
Pupils Defecate In Drains
A big drain which runs through the
school has been covered and on top of it is a toilet.
Surprisingly, the pupils appear not
to be using the toilet facility, as a visit by DAILY GUIDE to the place
on Friday, May 31, 2019, revealed the pupils defecating in the drain while in
their school uniform.
Residents have revealed that the drain
which has been covered would, therefore, prevent the flow of water from
Kotobabi and other areas.
Mr. Affum said that was putting
pressure on the school’s wall and was responsible for the collapse of part of
the wall.
Not only has the drainage been blocked
around the school for the construction of the toilet facility, but another
resident has also blocked part of the drain and has built a house on it,
meaning all the waters that get to area do not flow further, and when there is
heavy downpour of rains, the area gets flooded.
Within the same vicinity of the
school is a deep manhole that has been left uncovered, with the kids playing
around it on a daily basis.
Aside the wall, the very foundation
of the school has deep cracks. The building itself has deep cracks and some
teachers who pleaded anonymity stated that teaching in the school is like
signing one’s own death sentence.
Negligence, Delays
DAILY
GUIDE gathered that had it not been
delays and negligence on the part of authorities at the Accra Metropolitan
Assembly (AMA) and the Ayawaso Central Municipality, the deceased and her son
would not have lost their lives painfully after the school wall collapsed on
them.
Admission of Negligence
The Ayawaso Central Municipal Director
of NADMO, Sylvester Kwakye, revealed that NADMO was, indeed, approached on
three occasions about the poor state of the school complex and how it posed
risk to human life.
He indicated that on two occasions,
he submitted reports to the Metro Director at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly
(AMA) on the need to take action about the poor state of the school.
According to him, another report was submitted to the Ayawaso Central Municipality about the state of the school and the complaints of the teachers.
Mr. Kwakye said he has been in office
for more than a year and half and that he became aware of the situation within
his first month of taking office.
“We have come here for
inspections on about three occasions which we have done our reports. We had a
chat with the school authorities, the head teacher and some teachers. After
that we came back. We realised that the wall was cracked,” he mentioned.
At the time of the inspections, Ayawaso Central was a sub-metro under AMA.
He added that NADMO was waiting for
AMA to award the contract for the demolition of the wall to pave way for new
one to be constructed.
When asked why that was not done, he
said there were complaints from AMA about lack of funds for the project.
Shockingly, he explained that it was
only a week ago that a contractor was brought to the school to work on the
wall.
Generosity; Action After Tragedies
The Member
of Parliament (MP) for Ayawaso Central and Deputy Minister for the Interior,
Henry Quartey, a few hours after the tragedies, pledged 200 bags of cement,
4,000 blocks and other building materials for the reconstruction of the school
wall.
The MP
also swiftly directed the engineer for the municipality to commence work on the
wall within 14 days and to identify structures on walkways, so they can
be pulled down if possible, an order which would have been really impactful if
it had been done to prevent the collapse of the wall.
Ministers’ Visits
The
Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ishmael Ashitey, and the Minister of
Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, are also expected to examine the state of the
Nkrumah Basic School at Newtown.
He
said he has been lobbying for new school building for the area under the
Millennium School Project.
Residents’ Threat
But the youth and residents of the
area have threatened to stop school activities if government fails to act
swiftly.
An assembly member for Ayawaso,
Kokomlemle West, Henry Hotor, stated that residents would have no other option than
to withdraw their kids if nothing is done by the state to find a new building
for them.
One of the angry youth, Innocent Quarshie, lamented that successive governments over the years have been less responsive to the needs of the school.
BY Melvin Tarlue
The post Learning In A Death Zone appeared first on DailyGuide Network.
