The Wa Central Member of Parliament (MP), Dr. Alhaji Hassan Rashid Pelpuo, has supported the Parent-Teacher-Association (PTA) of the Bamahu M/A Junior High School (JHS) to construct a two-classroom block for the school.
The MP donated 15 packets of roofing sheets towards the completion of the 2-unit classroom attachment that was initiated by the PTA to address the infrastructural deficit in the school.
The intervention is to help reduce the classroom deficit the school was suffering from over the years which had forced the school authorities to shelter the first-year students under sheds.
Speaking to the media during a brief ceremony at the Bamahu M/A JHS, the Headteacher of the Bamahu M/A JHS, Mr Yussif Abdul-Rahim, said a student population of 231 was expected to be accommodated in only three classrooms.
He observed the insufficient classroom situation compelled parents to seek transfers for their wards to be enrolled in different schools in Wa where they believed there were enough and spacious classrooms to support their wards’ learning.
He said “we have realized that the number of pupils that are transferred from this school to others schools in town is just unimaginable.
“Then at a point too, we got to realized that we were having increment in enrollment, then we saw the need to put up these structures as you have seen, three sheds – two being used as classrooms and then this other one used as a staff common room.”
Mr Abdul-Rahim said it was this that prompted the PTA to initiate the project and subsequently appealed to the MP for support to complete it.
The MP had earlier supported the project with 50 bags of cement and GH₵2,000.00 for the building and subsequently donated 15 packets of roofing sheets.
The headteacher, however, appealed for further support to fully complete the structure after it has been roofed.
Dr. Pelpuo indicated that he has prioritised education in his intervention as that was the gateway to personal, community and national development.
He shared that the Bamahu JHS has been suffering from lack of classroom infrastructure and that an intervention of the community supported by himself got the structure to the roofing level which he is still supporting to be completed.
He said the school has been under his care for a very long time and that at a point when they needed a classroom block, he easily supported them with one because his part was in power.
“But consistently for a period of time, the increase in enrollment kept rising until there is the need for another intervention, unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the policy of this government to build classrooms,” Dr. Pelpuo observed.
He said he would not relent in his efforts to support the educational sector in his constituency.