The Northern Regional Programmes Manager of ActionAid Ghana, Madam Esther Boateng has charged governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations, and other stakeholders in education to, at all times, consider the quality of upbringing and mental development of the child, before constructing classrooms for early childhood development.

Attributing the growing falling standard of education at the basic school levels to poor development of the very foundation of the little children at the kindergarten and nursery levels, Madam Boateng said that every early childhood learning centre, whether private or public, must have strategic learning and teaching aids or tools for the comfort and mental development of the pupils and teachers. Madam Esther Boateng made the call when ActionAid Ghana commissioned a three-unit model classroom block for the Kpene community in the Sagnarigu District of the Northern Region.

The GH¢82,000 structure, which is to provide early childhood education for kindergarten pupils in the community, was constructed with support from some Greek volunteers, who spent four days offering voluntary services during the construction of the school block.  The school has a fence wall, water harvesting and storage facility, decent place of convenience, playing kits, and other interesting teaching and learning aids.

However, Madam Esther Boateng urged the various metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to adapt the design, and build similar ones for their kindergarten pupils to further sharpen their brains. The Kpene M/A Community School, until now, was one of the most deprived schools in the Sangnarigu District with inadequate facilities. The old Kindergarten block, made of mud, which has been replaced by the newly constructed model school built by ActionAid Ghana, was nothing but a death trap.

The school currently has only three classrooms, which are also begging for replacement.  Primary one and two pupils are housed in the classroom, primary three and four also in the same classroom, and Primary five and six also in one classroom. The Sagnarigu District Chief Executive, Alhassan Mohammed Sorugodow, bemoaned the abysmal performance of students in the 2013 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).

He said that even though the district has a large number of trained teachers and adequate learning facilities, the performance of schools in the area continued to record poor results. The DCE warned that his administration would not countenance any form of misbehaviour on the part of the teachers in the district, and charged them to demonstrate more commitment to enhance the quality of education. The project was commissioned by the Deputy Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini.

The Minister, who could not stop praising ActionAid for the construction of the modern school block, urged the chief and people of Kpene, especially parents, to enroll their children, and also ensure that they stayed in school. He said that the government, on its part, was also going to connect the community with electricity, to enable the children have access to computers. So far the government has provided good roads to the community and provided them with potable water.