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In spite of the Government’s intervention to provide school infrastructure for all basic schools under trees across the deprived areas of the country, there are still some schools in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region where teaching and learning are conducted under trees.

Among the most affected schools include the Mercy Nursery /Primary School at Sirigu which absorbs children from the Mother of Mercy Orphanage and the Kaase Primary school also found at Kaase in the same District.

These came to light when the Ghana News Agency together with a team from World Vision Ghana (WVG) paid a working visit to the two schools to see the academic progress of the children.

Speaking about the plight of the of Mercy Nursery /Primary School, the Headmistress, Mrs Lucy Akanboyure, explained that the school which was founded in the year 2000 as day nursery by the Diocesan Development Unit of the Catholic Church together with some church elders, was meant at the time to take only the Orphans from the Mother of Mercy orphanage.

She said as time went on the population of the children increased making it impossible for the high number of children enrolled to occupy the three unit classroom block.

The Headmistress indicated that the school which now has a population of over 400 children including some students at the Junior High School level was absorbed by the Ghana Education Service(GES) in 2003 under the same structure, compelling the school authority to conduct teaching and learning under trees.

She said despite several appeals to the Ghana Education( GES )and the District Assembly to expand the school infrastructure, nothing had been done and so the Parent Teacher Association of the School and the Church elders built a mud structure for the junior school pupils, whilst most of the children studied under trees.

She said hitherto, the school had no furniture, no source of drinking water, nor toilet and urinal facilities until she appealed to WVG which supported it with those facilities.

The Head teacher of the Junior High School, Reverend Jacob Moldana, described the mud structure housing the JHS students as a death trap and said the situation was seriously affecting teaching and learning especially during the rainy season.

Whilst commending WVG for supporting the School, both the Headmistress and the Head teacher appealed to other Non-Governmental Organizations and philanthropists to come to the aid of the school by expanding its infrastructure.

The situation was not different at the Kasse Primary school where the three class unit block that was built in 1993 could only contain primary four, five and six pupils leaving the primary three, two, one and Kindergartens one and two and the nursery pupils to study under trees.

The Head teacher of the Kaase Primary school, Mr Eugene Zagenia, said the school had a population of 353 pupils and several appeals to the District Assembly to expand its infrastructure had not yielded any result.

Whilst commending WVG for providing the school with water and toilet facilities, the Head teacher also appealed to NGOs and other benevolent organizations to come to the aid of the school.

Mr John Agangmikre, the Circuit Supervisor in charge of the area, said the GES Directorate was aware of the plight of the schools and reiterated that the GES had also for the past three years been appealing to the District Assembly without positive results .