ONLY 7 PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN PRU HAVE KG ACCOMMODATION (PAGE 43, OCT 5, 2010)

ONLY seven out of the 92 primary schools in the Pru District in the Brong Ahafo Region have accommodation for pupils at the Kindergarten (KG), the District Director of Education, Mr Yaw Manu Yeboa has said.
He has, therefore, suggested that new designs of infrastructure for schools in the country should include a one five-unit classroom block for KG and lower primary schools instead of the three-unit classroom block which only satisfies accommodation for lower primary, upper primary or junior high school (JHS).
Mr Yeboa made the suggestion at the inauguration of a KG and a three-unit classroom block for the Labun Resettlement Township District Assembly Primary School in the Pru District in the Brong Ahafo Region.
The Volta River Authority (VRA) Resettlement Trust Fund financed the project at a cost of GH¢58,000.
The government and the VRA established the fund in 1996 with the main aim of improving the living conditions of the inhabitants of the 52 resettlement towns affected because of the construction of the Akosombo Dam in the early 1960s.
Mr Yeboa commended the VRA Resettlement Trust Fund for satisfying the demands for classroom infrastructure for KG, primary and JHS.
He said another problem that deterred teachers from accepting posting to the rural areas was lack of accommodation, and appealed for decent teachers’ residential accommodation in such deprived areas.
The Board Chairman of VRA Resettlement Trust Fund, Mr Andrew T. Baffour, said the trust fund had spent GH¢103,000 on two projects, namely a three-unit classroom block to be used as a primary school and a kindergarten school complex at Labun and Prang, respectively.
He said the mission of the trust fund was to ensure that the resettlement communities were provided with welfare projects.
These include environmental amelioration and social welfare projects like community centres, public health centres, educational facilities, electricity, water and sanitation to enhance the living standards of the members of the communities.
Mr Baffour said since its inception, the trust fund had executed several projects in the resettlement communities, including 35 KG blocks, 52 primary school blocks, 42 JHS, three teachers’ quarters, 10 clinics, nurses’ quarters, 82 boreholes, 15 small town water systems and eight community centres.
He expressed the hope that the classroom block would help increase the enrolment and retention of pupils.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo thanked the trust fund for the facility.
He expressed the hope that the school management committee would institute a maintenance culture to extend the life span of the building.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo said the government had put in place many interventions such as provision of classroom infrastructure to create congenial environment to enhance quality teaching and learning.
He urged parents to take keen interest in the education of their children.
The Omanhene of Prang Traditional Area, Nana Kwadwo Nyarko III, who chaired the function, appealed to the government to pay in full the compensation for the land it acquired for the resettlement township at Prang.
He thanked the trust fund for the classroom block and called on the people to take good care of the building.