Adongo (not his real name) was tottering back to his class after being on his feet for more than two hours at the assembly hall.
It was an unusual Monday morning assembly he and his fellow students had just closed from. On a normal day, such gathering lasts not more than an hour.
But that Monday morning’s assembly lasted longer than usually, in a large part, due to a visit by a police officer. The uniformed man was there to educate students of the Zuarungu Senior School on the need to refrain from acts of violence in the upcoming general election scheduled for December 7, 2024.
As a result, the gathering on December 2, 2024 stretched beyond the normal time and the students, especially those who couldn’t get a space to rest their buttocks, were worn out by the time it ended.
Adongo, an SHS One student, was among those unlucky to get seats.
So immediately after the closing remarks were said, he headed to his class at the SHS One block – to rest, one would have thought.
But the discomfort he felt hanging on the benches disorderly placed in the classroom gave no room to rest his wearied body.
“We feel very uncomfortable sitting on the benches,” said Adongo. “And we don’t have tables to put our books on when we are studying. So we find it difficult to write whenever we are studying.”
Due to inadequate learning desks in the school, the benches have been provided as substitute in all the SHS One classes for the students, who had just been admitted, to sit on for lessons.
But they offer no comfort to their occupants. Adongo says his back breaks in excruciating pain whenever he sits on the bench for long during classes.
Apart from the discomfort the freshers have to endure sitting for classes, the benches offer no space for writing.
So, students have to turn their laps into tables, on which they place their books to take notes during lessons.
In some of the classes, however, the benches available are too few for the class population. Thus, more than half a dozen students are compelled to share a single bench, resulting in overcrowding that makes it difficult to position one’s laps in such a way that would allow a book to be placed on it.
For such students, there is no way they could take notes in the course of a lesson.
The pains and general discomfort Adongo and his colleagues are enduring at Zuarungu SHS is not an isolated situation.
Dreamz News in November reported of similar problems faced by freshers in two other SHSs – Bongo SHS and Zamse SH/TS.
Though furniture deficit has become a major challenge confronting children’s education in Ghana, the problem did not extend to the second cycle level: it was only a challenge at the basic level mostly blamed on government’s overconcentration on second cycle education.
However, due to the implementation of the Free SHS policy that has opened up accessibility and seen enrolment more than doubled, student population in some schools has exceeded the available number of desks.
Laadi (not her real name), another SHS One student of Zuarungu SHS is distraught over the situation. She cannot fathom why she was not told about the furniture deficit in the school when she was about reporting.
At least, her parents would have made provisions to get her a desk subsequently if not right away, she says.
Teachers and school management, for political reasons, have been cowed into silence, educationist and former Upper East Regional Minister Prof. Ephraim Avea Nsoh said of the situation.
The government’s implementation of the Free SHS policy, he said, has been “porous”, causing a mess at the second cycle level.
In order to cover up the messy situation for political convenience, he asserted that the Akufo-Addo administration has gagged teachers and management from revealing the extent of the challenges the poor roll out of the policy has brought about.
Our visits to the two other schools and Zuarungu SHS to film the situation were on the blindside of teachers and management.
Yet, management of one of the schools reached out to us, expressing fear of victimisation. He said though he did not authorise our coverage, he could be punished for not being vigilant enough to prevent such media exposé.
Prof. Avea said unless an honest deliberation involving all stakeholders on the challenges brought about following the implementation of the policy is had, such issues will persist and may even get worse as time goes by.
In an interview, days before the 2024 general elections in which the governing New Patriotic Party suffered its worst defeat since 2000, the former Minister stated, “the government must review that (policy). And reviewing, which we will do when we (NDC) come to power, is to try and get dedicated funding (for the policy)”.
