By
Samuel Akumatey, GNA
Nkwakubew (E/R),
Feb. 27, GNA – A dilapidated 57 year old primary school in the Asuogyaman
District of the Eastern Region has been renovated by Pencils of Promise, a Non
Governmental Organization (NGO), and the Volta River Authority (VRA).
The twelve-unit
classroom block of the Presbyterian Primary School at Nkwakubew, built in 1963,
has weathered into a desolate pavilion, and was in 2018 captured among priority
projects to be supported under the VRA’s Resettlement Trust Fund.
Pencils of Promise,
an international education support organization, has undertaken a five year
memorandum of understanding with the VRA to improve upon education in its
resettlement communities and bore 70 per cent of the GH¢423,000.00 project,
which included sanitation facilities.
Mr Freeman Gobah,
Country Director for Pencils of Promise, at a handing over ceremony on
Wednesday, counted the project among the biggest the organization has executed
in its seven-year presence in the country.
He said it was the
fruit of a successful collaboration among the organization, the VRA, and the
community, and asked the latter to revel in the edifice, and maintain it to
serve generations to come.
“Today we have
completed the project. The school is now yours and you must help maintain it,”
the Director said, and cautioned against using the facility for non-academic
purposes, especially by the public.
Justice Emmanuel
Nana Antwi-Barima, Board Chairman of the VRA Trust Fund, also asked the school
and the community to ensure that the facility was kept to standard.
He said the Board,
since its inauguration in April 2018, has been working on improving upon social
interventions in VRA’s resettlement areas and would carry the partnership with
Pencils of Promise through all 52 communities.
Mr Thomas Ampem
Nyarko, Member of Parliament for Asuogyaman, said the partnership between
Pencils of Promise and the VRA was “promising and would yield good results,”
praising the NGO for helping revive communism in areas it operated.
He advised students,
teachers and parents to ensure the facility helped produce the desired academic
improvements, saying “a classroom block is not done in itself unless it contributes
in improving academic performance”.
Mr Samuel Kwame
Agyekum, District Chief Executive for Asuogyaman, said the importance of
education has led to government effort to ease the financial burden attached to
schooling, hence the need for all parents to make their wards reap the
benefits.
He said the Assembly
has committed to rehabilitating health facilities and school buildings in the
District.
The school has a
total student population of 437, with 17 teaching staff.
Mr Francis Akpator,
the School Head, said the lifespan of the school building had been expanded and
appealed to stakeholders to address the structural integrity of its
kindergarten block and provide the children with some playing materials.
School furniture
including 55 dual desks, furniture for teaching staff, ceiling fans, and two
10,000-liter capacity water storage tanks, were also provided as part of the
project.
GNA