DISTRICT ASSEMBLY IMPROVES EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE (Page 11

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover, Navrongo

The Kassena-Nankana District Assembly in the Upper East Region has embarked on massive infrastructural development for the area. The development efforts include the construction of more than 10 three-unit and six-unit classroom blocks throughout the district, the provision of furniture for some selected schools and the rehabilitation of educational facilities destroyed by the floods that occurred last year. 
The assembly’s efforts also include sponsorship for students and these are in line with the fact that the assembly is poised to sustain and improve upon quality of education at every stage of the education ladder. 
The Chief Executive of the Kassena-Nankana District, Mr Emmanuel Chegeweh, disclosed these at the fifth session of the assembly’s first ordinary meeting at Navrongo.
Mr Chegeweh said the district had benefited a great deal from its development partners and mentioned the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) which supplied 6,850 dual desks and 500 teachers’ tables to schools to improve on their furniture situation. 
The Social Investment Fund, he said, also assisted the assembly to construct a classroom block at Biu-Sensa and is again funding 6-unit classroom blocks at Pingo and Yidana. 
He said with support from the HIPC Funds, two classroom blocks were built at Navro-Pungu and Kalvio, while three other school blocks at Tampola, Namolo and Saboro whose roofs were ripped off by a storm have been rehabilitated. 
Mr Chegeweh announced that estimates for the remaining schools that were also affected by the recent floods have been made and the schools would be rehabilitated as soon as funds became available. 
He said as part of measures to address the shortage of teachers in the district, the assembly had established a sponsorship scheme for teacher trainees and was also sponsoring 168 teacher trainees who were expected to return to the district to serve the people. Last year, the assembly sponsored 117 teacher trainees in various teacher training colleges.
Mr Chegeweh said reports reaching the assembly indicated that while some schools in the villages were woefully understaffed, those in Navrongo township were rather over staffed.
He attributed this to the fact that most teachers posted to the rural areas normally went back to the Ghana Education Service (GES) directorate to reverse their posting after just a month. 
He, therefore, appealed to the district director of education not to heed to pressure from any quarter to repost teachers. 
Acknowledging the importance of information and communication technology (ICT) and the study of French, the chief executive said the assembly had recommended the inclusion of teachers in those areas for sponsorship by the assembly, while needy students, children with disabilities as well as tertiary students who came home to assist in teaching, revenue mobilisation and other programmes of the assembly during holidays were also being supported financially. 
Mr Chegeweh expressed his appreciation to the Member of Parliament for Navrongo Central, Mr Joseph Kofi Adda, who he said had taken it upon himself to provide the district with a multi-purpose library, which was being constructed.