Yaw Mensah Opoku, the deputy public relations officer for the education ministry, claims that it is unfair to depict the government in a negative light because of the difficulties with the educational facilities in primary schools.
He claimed that the government was taking various actions to assist in resolving issues that some primary schools in the nation were facing, such as those highlighted in the JoyNews series Ghana’s Schools of Shame, which focused on the problems with the country’s basic schools’ educational infrastructure.
In light of this, the spokesperson claimed that it was inaccurate to claim that the Akufo-Addo administration had neglected fundamental schools.
On Sunday’s episode of JoyNews’ The Probe, he told host Emefa Apawu, “At the most fundamental level, you are not looking at one student to a desk. In essence, the only thing we do is provide dual desks.”
“I’m giving you these figures for you to understand that what we’re painting as a total neglect at the basic level, that is not the case. That is the picture I’m painting for you.
“We need to understand from that context that what government is supplying out to basic schools, are part of the measures government is putting out so that we can achieve or get to the limit that we all seek to have. And if we paint a gloomy picture out there where specifically, we don’t mention some of the interventions government is making in there, it becomes very unfortunate, and government can equally say that is disheartening.”
Mr Opoku highlighted some of the efforts being made by the government to support and facilitate basic education.
Mr. Opoku emphasized a few of the initiatives the government is taking to encourage and facilitate fundamental education.
According to him, “just this Friday only, as part of the efforts, the Ghana Education Service (GES), led by government as the Director General himself traveled all the way from Accra to Sene East where the disaster occurred to have firsthand information about that intervention that the government has made.”
In order to prevent a repeat of the tragedy, in which about eight pupils from the area drowned in the Volta Lake while traveling to school, the spokesperson said that he also traveled to the area to distribute life jackets to local elementary school students.
He reiterated that rather than characterising the government as neglecting primary schools, it would be fair to urge it to step up its efforts to address the educational issues in those institutions.
Source:myjoyonline.com
