The Nadowli District Chief Executive in the Upper West Region, Abu Kasangabata has observed that school enrolment in his area has shot up following the expansion of the school feeding program, to cover more school in the district.Mr Abu Kasangabata was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of Saint Norbert’s school and a teachers’ resource center. The school and the resource center were built by the President of M.O.V Stiphout, Van de Ven based in the Netherlands.
Mr Kasangabata said when the NDC assumed office the district had only two schools subscribed to the national school feeding program, adding, from the time he took office to date over seventy eight schools in the district have come under the program.
He said the district assembly has also spent five hundred thousand Ghana cedis to build the road network between Kandomwini and the district capital, Nadowli, this he said is to open up the district to make education more accessible to people in the district.
He said work is almost complete in the provision of electricity from the national grid and all schools in the district will be connected to ensure the effective teaching and learning of ICT.
The District Director of Education for the Nadowli district, Grace Bonye who spoke on the state of education in the district said the Nadowli district has eight circuit centres with eighty KGs, eighty primary schools and forty three Junior High Schools. She said in terms of enrolment the KGs have a total of 7,640 pupils, at the primary level the district has more than 18,000 pupils with 5,774 students at the JHS level.
Touching on the staffing situation in the district, the Nadowli district director of education said there are only thirty trained teachers at the KG level with hundred and four untrained ones. There also are 230 trained teachers at the primary level with 213 untrained others.
She said JHS in the district have 188 trained teachers with 78 untrained ones. Madam Grace Bonye said the district education directorate owes much gratitude to the District Assembly for constructing a lot of school buildings in the district which as a result; schools under trees are a thing of the past. She said the district has been achieving much in the BECE exams since 2007 and everything will be done to improve the standards
Nicholas Diedong who spoke on behalf of the Nadowli Traditional Council said St. Norbert’s Basic school started with 42 children in 2007 through the goodwill of the district’s Dutch friends who provided funds to start the school. He said the building of the school is timely as parents and pupils of the area will no longer suffer to have their children attend school.
He said children under six years no longer stay at home because they couldn’t walk to the nearest school which was very far. The dangers of crossing large streams with fast flowing currents are no longer an issue.
He added, the people of the district will never let scarce resources used in the creation of the school and the teachers’ resource center go waste. The Nadowli Traditional Council is therefore prepared to give more land if the need for it arises for the creation of more educational facilities in the district.
The Mayor of Helmond in the Netherland Fons Jacobs said there is the need to give proper and good nutritional foods to the children as that is the only way to ensure that they succeed.
He employed when the children are well fed; they will be more innovative in their learning ways. He later donated five hundred Euros to the school to assist in the preparation of meals for the school children
B.M.J Seidu
