Story by: Krobea Asante Tofepa Ntomentwene and Nana Ampem Gyeke – Darko, News Afrika Online.
Wednesday 13th December, 2017.
Julius Nyeyere Tettey, project coordinator and the group Kloma Gbi, have been lauded for mobilising action and resources to construct a 3 unit JHS classroom block with ancillary facilities such as an I. C. T. lab, library, infirmary, a head master’s office, staff room and a six-seater washroom for the Kpong Presby JHS.
Kloma Gbi at work on new project in Kpong.
Executive Coordinator of the anti – water and environment pollution group, Drink Safe Water, Mr. Krobea Asante Tofepa Ntomentwene revealed to News Africa Online and Ambassadors on Tuesday after attending the 2nd annual education performance review meeting organized by the Ghana education Service in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality.
The meeting which was on the theme, “Providing quality education in an enabling environment ” was well attended by various unit heads, staff of the assembly, representatives of the traditional council, USAID learning, Pencils of Promise, JICA , Kloma FBI among others.
The New JHS building awaiting painting.
Speaking on the initiative, dubbed “Our Widow’s Mite” (OWiM project), Mr. Krobea Asante said, Kloma Gbi has indeed set the pace and needed to be commended for their contribution to nation building specifically in the LMKM through community development projects.
Mr. Krobea Asante who represented DSW Group and Power Africa Multimedia, indicated that Kloma Gbi was on verge of completing the project.
He said, the project included a six (6) seater toilet facility to help enhance sanitation in the school, an I. C. T centre, and a head masters office which when completed will aid teaching and learning.
According to Mr. Nyerere, members of the youth group who are all largely Krobo descent, came together and decided to use the widows mite technique/concept to seek for sponsorship support and contribution from members to salvage deadly situation in the school.
Participants contribute to discussions after presentations.
Mr. Krobea Asante disclosed to the participants, and the Municipal Education Director, Mrs. Rose Yaa Akanyi, and the Chairman of the meeting, Nene Teye Adjesu, Chief of Susu Menekpor, a mountain of refuse been formed near Mt. Mary School opposite the St. Paul’s school at Atua. He made reference to the National Environmental Sanitation Policy of and emphasized that, sanitation and hygiene were key to national development.
Mr. Nyerere was thankful to the Manya Krobo Rural Bank, Kloma Gbi members, and all other donors and supporters for their financial and material contribution towards the realisation of the project since its inception in March, 2017.
He said, the Kloma Gbi was hopeful the project would be completed and handed over early 2018, this assurance he maintained was possible due to the selflessness by members.
Touching on the deadly H1N1 influenza outbreak which has resulted in the death of 4 KUMAKA students in Kumasi in the Ashanti region, Mr. Nyerere called on parents, teachers and all to maintain personal hygiene, adopt the use of soap in washing the hands to avoid infestation.
The Old Kpong Presby JHS block.
“Above all, it is important to secure water resources and the environment by avoiding the indiscriminate dumping of hazardous substabces”, he added.
Municipal Chief Executive of LMKM, Honorable Simon Tetteh congratulated the group for the immense help to the Assembly through the construction of the facility, noting that even though government was committed to improving education, such contributions are always needed to boost the change expected in the educational sector in the municipality.
Hon. Simon Tetteh, MCE for LMKM
He pledged his support to augment the efforts of the group by assisting in the provision of some ICT equipment in the lab.
He said he was not too happy with the poor sanitation standards in the municipality and some schools, and added that the Assembly will provide waste bins for waste management in some of the schools and communities.
He also expressed worry that, the Municipal Education Directorate lacked it’s own office hence the continual operation from a rented apartment over the past 50 years.
He assured that, his outfit was working very hard to obtain grants in order to obtain a permanent facility for the educational administrative body of the municipality.
Mrs. Rose Yaa Akanyi, Municipal Education Director was not too happy about the standard of education and said “we can do better with collective efforts to build on all weaknesses and work better on strengths”.
In her address, she mentioned a total number of 324 pre – tertiary schools with a break down as follows:
113 pre – schools, 44 public, 69 private, 111 primary schools with 45 been public, and 66 private.
She further disclosed 91 Junior High Schools, 38 public and 53 private, 9 Senior High Schools, 4 public and 5 private.
Comparing the B. E.. C. E. results of 2017 and 2016, the Director said, there was a decline in 2017 by 7.5 percent, this represented 53.53% as against 60.58% in 2016.
Mrs. Rose Yaa Akanyi delivering her message.
However, no school scored 0 in 2017, this she said was a plus but encouraged teachers, stakeholders and parents to brainstorm better ways of closing up gaps.
In a presentation made by the School Health Education Programme Coordinator, Mr. Godfred Ceasar, poor health conditions contributed to failures in academics and therefore was paramount to attend to the safety and health of all students.
He said, amongst the many basic schools and senior high schools in the municipality, there were inadequate sick bays to administer first aid to students.
He mentioned, his office was ready to collaborate with advocacy group like DSW early next academic year to improve on the WASH programme introduced to schools by UNICEF and WHO.
He commended JICA and it’s volunteers for their contribution and support towards school Health education as far as the municipality was concerned.
The Chairman, Nene Teye Adjesu his closing remark said, it was sad the Member of Parliament, Honorable Okletey Terlabi was not present though invited, “it will take me weeks to probably understand even though, he MP sent a message of apology having Parliament business, he needed to have joined the Chief Executive”, he said.
Nene Teye Adjesu, Chairman seated next Mrs. Rose Yaa Akanyi from left.
Nene thanked organisers of the event, and cautioned against allowing the meeting to become only a talk show, he called for action on part of leadership to address all identified problems such as lack of educational infrastructure, supervision, unavailability of logistics, poor parenting and teacher – pupil relationship which leads to low performance and academic inexcellence.
He called for drastic measures to be adopted to obtain space to accommodate the G. E. S and it’s staff who for 50 years have survived in a rented building which failure to pay for revealed have accumulated a debt of GHC 26,000.
Display of Personal in the municipality of LMKM
In order to speed up on development of the education sector, the Chief promised to lead an ambassadorial role by advocating amongst various divisional Chiefs during meetings which, the G. E.S will be invited to share challenges for recommendations.
“Lower Manya Krobo municipality must become the best in terms of education, sanitation and development”, Nene Teye Adjesu concluded and ended for the closing remarks by Mrs. Elizabeth Nartey.
Source: DSW GROUP.
Drink Safe Water Group 
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