Rural Community Schools In NR Overcrowded…3 Teachers Handle 3 Classes In One Room

A number of schools in some rural communities in the Northern Region are confronted with the problem of overcrowding with one school having to accommodate more than 100 pupils in a classroom.

One of such schools is the Jakara Yilli Seventh-Day Adventist Primary, in the Tamale Metropolis, where a 35-pupil capacity classroom is being occupied by three classes; the Creche, Kindergaten one and two. They total more than 100; together with their teachers, all of whom use the same blackboard concurrently.

The same classroom also serves as a common room for teachers.

Mrs. Janet Ballans, head teacher of the Lower primary department, said the situation was militating against effective teaching and learning.

Mr. Johnson, the head teacher of the school said with the overcrowding in the classroom, three children’s instead of two had to use a dual desk meant for two pupils while others had to sit on the floor making learning very distressful.

He said the walls had also developed very frightening cracks.

He said all efforts made by the school authorities to address the situation have proved futile. The head teacher therefore, appealed to government and philanthropic organizations to go to the aid of the school by providing the children a conducive environment for academic work.

He said the school’s only toilet facility had seriously deteriorated compelling the school authorities to lock it up to prevent any unpleasant incident.