Basic and Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Gushegu Municipality of the Northern Region are grappling with a severe shortage of furniture, severely impacting teaching and learning activities.
A media team led by Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) in collaboration with the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) conducted a visit to several schools in the area to assess the availability of desks. Shockingly, the team observed pupils sitting on the floor or sharing desks meant for fewer students, while some had to resort to uncomfortable positions like lying on their bellies to write.
Despite GETFund's distribution of over 13,000 desks to basic schools nationwide by 2023, the Gushegu Municipality received only 180 desks, which were distributed among 54 schools. This fell drastically short of the demand, with some schools receiving only a handful of desks despite having student populations exceeding 300.
Ahmed Tijani, the Gushegu Municipal Director of Education, lamented the dire furniture situation, stating that the interventions thus far were inadequate. He highlighted the disparity between the number of desks provided and the actual student population, with some schools having as many as five students sharing a single desk, significantly hindering academic performance.
Headmasters and students also expressed frustration over the furniture deficit. Amadu Abdul Rashid, Headmaster of Gushegu M/A Block A, described the situation as awful, with over 150 pupils in his school lacking seats despite a population of 453. Victoria Tottimeh, a form three student at Maazijung JHS, highlighted the difficulties of sharing desks among three students, causing discomfort and hindering learning.
The monitoring conducted by Eduwatch follows a study conducted last year on the impact of desk deficits in public basic schools, underscoring the urgent need for additional furniture to create a conducive learning environment for students in Gushegu Municipality.