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The education of over 300 children in the Taamapuo and Bayeroo communities in the Nadowli-Kaleo District is in limbo due to the lack of a teacher at the school, located in Bayeroo.
The school was a joint initiative of the Bayeroo and Taamapuo communities, and it was to bring education closer to their children. The children had had to trek long distances daily to access school in other communities, especially early childhood school.
The hopes of the children of those communities to have an early childhood education were dashed after a Senior High School graduate at Bayeroo community who volunteered to manage the school, gained admission to further her education at the tertiary level. Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the Taamapuo community, Mr. Felix Mornah, a resident, said their children were currently out of school because they could not trek long distances to access schools in other communities.
He said some children from that community in Upper Primary whose parents could afford bicycles for them were the ones attending school, either at Nator-Baanuor, Longorozu or Nator-Naayir communities, which were closer to them. Meanwhile, many less privileged children and those at the Lower Primary and Kindergarten levels had no option than to stay at home.
However, no child at the Bayeroo community is currently in school because that community is very far from the nearest community with a school – the Nator-Baanuor community which, they said, is about four kilometres away from Bayeroo. At the time, the GNA visited the Taamapuo community, many children of school going age were seen loitering.
“We were happy to see our children in school but because their teacher has left for school they are out of school; the school is closed down,” Mr. Mornah lamented. The residents of Taamapuo community also told the GNA that the school block at Nator-Baanuor community, which could have served as an alternative, had its roof ripped off in 2016, compelling classes to be conducted under trees.
Meanwhile, Mr. Patrick Bambukor, the Assembly Member of Nator-West Electoral Area, indicated that though distance could prevent the children at Taamapuo from attending school at Nator-Baanuor, other factors could account for that. The lack of access to education for children in the Taamapuo and Bayeroo communities represented a fraction of children in rural and deprived communities in Ghana who had been denied their right to education.
That was an affront to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly Goal 4, which sought to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Target 4.2 of the Goals required that “By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys (in Ghana) have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”.
Development advocates contend that until all children in Ghana, irrespective of geographical location or social and economic status, had access to and retained in school, achieving that Goal would be a mirage.
Source: GNA
