By Benjamin Makafui Attipoe, Atravenu
Residents of Atravenu in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region, are appealing to government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as public spirited individuals and organizations to assist rescue their community basic school from its acute infrastructural and furniture challenges.
The Assembly Member (AM) for the area and Presiding Member (PM) of the South Tongu District Assembly (STDA), Victoria Dzeklo made the appeal in an interview with our newsteam at Atravenu.
The Atravenu D.A. Primary School was established in 1961 to provide basic education not only to the residents of Atravenu but also five (5) other communities in the catchment area including Dzadekope and Abletorkope.
The only attractive school building being used by the almost one hundred (100) kindergarten (KG) pupils in the school is the three-unit classroom block with ancillary facilities built by the famous educational NGO, Pencils of Promise (POP) which was subsequently inaugurated on 9th October, 2018.
The deplorable six (6) unit classroom block with offices in question was built on 10th August, 2008. Since then, the facility has not seen any major renovation, threatening the lives of more than one hundred and twenty (120) P1 to P6 pupils who are currently using the now death-trapped structure.
In April, this year, a severe wind and rainstorm that hit Atravenu and its adjoining communities, ripped off several portions of the roof not only cracking portions of the school block but also affecting the structural integrity of the sixteen (16) year old classroom block facility. When the weather threatens to rain, the pupils are forced to close and or seek refuge in the local Roman Catholic (RC) Church Chapel and the POP KG buildings.
Another major challenge facing the pupils or the school is lack of furniture. The acute furniture situation has compelled some of the students to squeeze themselves in the few weak desks, sit on cement blocks as chairs and also sit, read and write on the bare floor in the classrooms.
Some of the children also take their lessons in the RC Church chapel, a development which is of great worry to their studies.
Even though the school runs a school feeding programme as part of its curriculum, the pupils do not have a canteen where they can comfortably sit and eat their food. Some of them were seen sitting under trees and also squatting to eat from their bowls and plates on the bare ground.
Two of the pupils, Priscilla Amenuvor and Benedict Amekudzi described their plight in separate interviews with our newsteam as very disturbing. According to them, the situation they find themselves in is affecting their academic work and social lives as pupils. They also want government and stakeholders to support them with computers to enable them study Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the school.
The AM for the area and PM of the STDA, Hon. Victoria Dzeklo told our newsteam in an interview that the structure in question has been facing these challenges for more than ten (10) years now, adding that several promises by the District Assembly (DA) and some other stakeholders to deal with the problem, have not yielded any dividends.
According to her, the school children at Atravenu also deserve better facilities, lamenting that the current situation the children find themselves in, is very risky and dangerous. ‘Anything can happen, the roofs are off now and no one has been here to inspect it apart from the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) officials and we are still not getting any good response from anyone’, the Assembly Member lamented.
Hon. Dzeklo used the opportunity to appeal to the general public, corporate organizations, NGOs as well as well-meaning individuals and institutions to come to the aid of the school. According to her, the pupils are also Ghanaian children, adding that something urgent should be done before the situation completely gets out of hand. She emphasized that the powers that be should not wait for any disaster to happen before the needful is done for these innocent children who are the future leaders of the country.
The Atravenu D.A. Primary School has an enrolment of more than two hundred (200) pupils and seven (7) teachers. Apart from the Atravenu community, the school serves five (5) other communities namely Akpakope, Akokope, Dorfekope, Dzadekope and Abletorkope. Residents of the community are engaged in farming and fishing as well as petty trading.
Present during the visit by the newsteam included the Parents’ Association (PA) Vice Chairman of the school, Mr. Hayford Boglo as well as one of the Unit Committee Members of the community, Mr. Matthew Wegba Akorli.
For any assistance or support, the AM of the area and PM of the STDA can be reached on the following email and contact number:
[email protected] or on +233244663551.
