By: Murtala Issah
ActionAid Ghana, has donated over two thousand furniture for basic schools in the Nanumba North and the Nanumba South districts in the Northern region.
The donation includes more than one thousand six seater desks with a sitting capacity of over six thousand Kindergarten pupils in the two districts.
The initiative forms part of efforts to address the furniture crisis facing schools in the Northern region as well as support government’s efforts towards achieving the sustainable development goal 4, which seeks to ensure quality education for all by 2030.
According to Africa Education Watch, a civil society organization, three hundred and sixty four thousand, seven hundred and sixty two public basic schools in the Northern region are without furniture.
The report revealed that one hundred and four thousand, four hundred and forty five Kindergarten pupils representing eighty percent of KG pupils in the region are without furniture, forcing learners to either sit or lie on the floor during learning.
The situation is worse in rural districts such as the Nanumba South and Nanumba North, where poverty levels are relatively higher.
To address these challenges, ActionAid Ghana, through its Northern Regional Office, has initiated a programme to support public basic schools in the region with furniture.
The Northern Regional Manager of ActionAid, Esther Boateng, explained that, the initiative is part of efforts to address barriers facing education in the region.
“We went to KG, Basic and Junior High Schools to assess their furniture situation and I must say, the situation was not good because the pupils outnumbered the furniture at the various schools and some of the children were sitting on bare floors and some under trees and were writing on very dusty floor and I think the Ghana Education Service need to make a move to resolve this problem.”
ActionAid has already supported some schools in the Northern regional capital, Tamale, with furniture and is calling on other organisations to support public basic schools in the area to procure more.
The DCE for Nanumba South district Zakariah Issifu, expressed his gratitude to ActionAid for the support, saying the assembly alone cannot address the furniture challenges facing schools in the area.
The Nanumba North District Chief Executive, Abdulai Yaqoub commended ActionAid for the gesture and urged the beneficiary schools to take good care of the furniture to ensure longevity.
