Schools in Gushegu suffer critical furniture deficit

Basic and Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Gushegu Municipality of the Northern Region are faced with extreme furniture deficit, which is significantly affecting teaching and learning. This was observed during a visit by a media team, led by the Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) in collaboration with the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), to monitor the availability of desks in schools. The team's visit to schools including the Gushegu M/A Primary, Gushegu Demonstration, Maazijung Primary and JHS among others, saw pupils sitting on the floor during lessons while some stood. In some schools, three or more pupils shared a desk meant for two while others laid on their bellies to write. Meanwhile, GETFund, by 2023 distributed over 13,000 desks to basic schools across the country. Out of these numbers, the Gushegu Municipality received 180 desks, which were distributed among 54 schools. The furniture supply fell short of the demand of the schools as some schools with over 300 student-population, received four desks or less. Mr Ahmed Tijani, Gushegu Municipal Director of Education, speaking to the media during the visit on Monday, said the furniture situation in the area was dire adding interventions to solve the problem were not sufficient. He noted that the Municipality received 180 desks from GETFund, which were shared among all schools with some receiving only two pieces. He said 'In some schools, five students share a desk, and this is affecting their performance. It is badly affecting teaching and learning.' He appealed to government, the Municipal Assembly and NGOs to supply the schools with furniture to provide an enabling learning condition for students. Some headmasters and students shared frustrations over the furniture deficit situation in their schools. Mr Amadu Abdul Rashid, Headmaster, Gushegu M/A Block A, described the furniture deficit situation in the school as awful saying pupils' demeanor in class indicated the level of uneasiness. He said the school received 10 pieces of the GETFund furniture for a population of 453 pupils adding over 150 pupils were without seats. Victoria Tottimeh, a form three student of the Maazijung JHS, said three of them were sharing a desk in class, which made writing difficult and created so much discomfort. She mentioned that there were instances where some students stood during lessons due to inadequate furniture adding the situation deterred learning. The monitoring followed a study conducted by Eduwatch last year on the impact of desk deficit in public basic schools. Source: Ghana News Agency