Community Engagements

AN URBAN SCHOOL IN A RURAL SETTING: REGENT-GHANA EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT INITIATIVE

Educating the rural-poor
One of the sectors in this country where there is a huge gulf between the rural areas and the urban areas is in the educational sector. When the national kitty is being distributed, the rural folks do not get their fair share. This is clearly manifested in the absence of adequate infrastructure, qualified teachers, and resources and facilities that will enhance teaching and learning in the schools located in the rural areas.
Speaking in this vein, Mr. Mathias Puozaa, the chairman of the parliamentary select committee on education in Ghana recently lamented that “many qualified teachers, mostly University graduates, do not want to accept posting to rural areas since amenities such as potable water, electricity and accommodation are lacking, leaving only pupil teachers or no teachers at all in those areas” (see Ghanaian Times, September 23, 2009, back page).
Not only do schools in the rural areas lack qualified teachers, in most places basic resources that will enhance teaching and learning are non-existent. This massive neglect manifests itself in the poor performance at the national examinations like the Basic Education Certification Examination (BECE). Many children, for various reasons, drop out of school before they reach this level. There are places in this country where not even a single child has passed this examination for a number of years. As one will expect, except there is radical intervention, human or divine, most of these children will not be able to realize their God-given potential, not to speak of their ability to contribute meaningfully to the nation’s development. This neglect in its various forms is detrimental to our development as a nation, and dehumanizing and discriminatory to the rural-poor.

It is from this perspective that Regent-Ghana, led by its President, has embarked on the much needed educational empowerment project at Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi, a rural settlement within the Suhum-Kraboa Coal tar Constituency in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

The settlement is said to have started in the 1940s, following the construction of a road linking Suhum and Koforidua. The inhabitants, who are mostly farmers, settled along the roads to facilitate easy transportation for their products to the urban areas. Subsequently, a market centre was created with brisk business on market days. Maize, cassava, plantain, and cocoa are the main cash crops in the community.

This is supplemented by tomatoes, okra, and pepper. Kyenku-Larbi is one of the over forty settlements along the River Adimadim, from which it derives its name. Currently, Adimadim has over 2,000 inhabitants spread over some 40 settlements. The name Kyenku-Larbi itself, is a corruption of the Ga phrase (Kyenku le obiee), literally translates as ‘Kyenku takes care of his children.’ This depicts the way the original inhabitant of this village, a Ga man, called Kyenku, managed to take good care of his offspring at that settlement. Unfortunately, this has not been the case for most inhabitants at this settlement in later years due to abject poverty.

Primary school education in Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi came on the back of religion. A school was built in 1974 following the arrival of Pastor Sampson Adjei Osei (now deceased) in 1972, and the opening of the church of Melchizedeck the same year. Apart from the evangelistic activities of Pastor Sampson Adjei, the church saw to the temporal needs of the community by providing funding for the primary school project until 1976 when the community started to assist in paying the teachers.
In 1978, the school came under the Ghana Education Service. Unfortunately, pupils of the primary school had to walk for some two kilometers to Aboabo Sonkor for the then middle school programme. The challenges posed by the community together 0022 to construct a four-classroom block for a JHS. The building, however, was left uncompleted since then.
Myriads of other factors conspired to set the stage to undermine the educational efforts of this community: enrolment figures continues to dip low, teacher and pupil absenteeism is rife; lateness to school by teachers and pupils is a daily routine rather than the exception, and quality accommodation for teachers in the community is non-existent. The result is what you might expect: the abysmal performance of the children in this community in the national examinations. The BECE results have been consistently poor, leaving parents and pupils to wonder if it was worth investing in education at all. Unless a child is moved out of this community to further his or her education in a better endowed school in an urban area, the chances of one passing the BECE is almost negligible; success in the national examinations has always been a mirage and a bewildering experience!

The Suhum district is said to have about 100 junior his schools distributed within several circuits; the Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi JHS is one of seven schools belonging to a circuit. As one would expect of most of the rural schools in Ghana, the performance in the BECE examinations over the years has been consistently regretful. In 2005 twenty-one pioneer JSS students in the school wrote the BECE examinations and only six people passed; the highest grade was 20 and lowest 29. This has been the best performance so far. In 2006 only 3 students passed out of about 18 students who wrote the examinations. The best performance stood at aggregate 27.

In 2007 nobody passed the BECE. 2008 only one passed with aggregate 29, and this person happened to be someone who wrote the 2007 examinations and failed! At the 2009 BECE the best record stood at aggregate 40! Despite this poor performance at this school, I am told it came second in the 7 schools in the circuit during 2008 examinations! So one can imagine the state of affairs in the other schools.
The problems that have bedeviled the school over the years, include low enrolment, lack of suitable accommodation for teachers in the community culminating in lateness, absenteeism and inadequate monitoring of pupil’s progress; a situation where some teachers sent the children to work on their farms instead of being at school, has also been mentioned as one of the setbacks. The other problems include the inability or unwillingness of some parents to pay the required token fees of their wards, lack of interest by some children, and chronic absenteeism on the part of some pupils. This myriad of factors has contributed to high drop-out rates, and poor performance at the national examinations. The low enrolment and drop out ratio are dangerously skewed to the detriment of the girl-child. According to Mr. Anakwa Manteaw, the headmaster of the school, who has served at this school for over seven years, out of some forty students in the school only a third are girls.

Changing the status quo
The foregoing has prompted Prof E. K. Larbi and Regent University College to embark on the Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi community empowerment educational initiative, in collaboration with the Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi community. The implementation of this project is in line with the institution’s strong belief that as the nation searches for answers for her seemingly, intractable developmental challenges, the nation’s high educational sector must play a leading role. This project is a also anchored in the strong conviction of the President of Regent-Ghana that it will take our collective responsibility to fully develop the potential of our people, and to move the agenda of development forward.

Certain interventions have been made in the past but they were all of a short term, and transient in nature. The intervention which has been initiated now, in the year 2009, is definitively more enduring. This new initiative is aimed at providing modern, high quality educational facilities (from Kindergarten to Senior High School) in a rural setting, comparable with any good school anywhere in the country.

The project is going to be in four phases. Phase one will consist of:-

Phase two will consist of remolding and completing of the existing uncompleted primary school block.

Phase three will comprise:-

The penultimate of this empowerment project will be the construction of facilities for a top class JHS; the construction of decent toilet and biogas facilities for the community, the construction of a community centre and the establishment of a clinic for the village.
The rural Educational Empowerment Project goes beyond the provision of physical structures to include the alleviation of other factors that contribute to the powerlessness and pauperization of the poor in this community. The completion and dedication of the first phase of the project will culminate in a three-day empowerment crusade where presentations on the value of education, the virtues of the Christian faith and the abundant life in Christ, family planning and Reproductive Health issues, the dangers of teenage pregnancy, virtues of hard-work, the dangers of superstition, etc, will be addressed.
The remolding and repair works of the existing JHS block is about 95% done; doors and windows are being fixed, and should be completed within two weeks. A lot has been achieved within four weeks, thanks for the public spiritedness of some twenty volunteers from Regent University College, who generously responded to the call for duty with ultra enthusiasm and zeal, as if they were being paid for their services. Both full time workers and part-time workers of the College saw this as a call of duty.

The zeal and enthusiasm of the Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi community has also been encouraging; men, women, and children have all been involved in one way or the other. The leadership has been fully behind the empowerment project. One of the government sponsored teachers in the school has shown profound interest in the project by fully participating in the ongoing works. He has been fully involved in all the four Saturdays that the project has been executed. It also needs to be mentioned that not everyone in the community or is associated with the community is showing the expected interest. It is hoped this will change in the course of time. Whatever be the case, by the grace of God, the project will proceed unperturbed. Two teachers have already been recruited for the project. Their presence has already registered profound interest in the revival of education in the community. Some dropouts have returned to school;

The two teachers sponsored by the College have seriously commenced remedial classes for the Children. Attendance has been very encouraging; some individuals who have already gone through the JHS but did not do well are attending the classes with the current students. Twenty five beautiful chairs with writing units have been provided for the evening classes.

Through the hospitality of the project director, Prof E. K. Larbi, a decent housing arrangement have been provided for two of the teachers in the JHS sponsored by the government, and tow of the Teachers in the JHS sponsored by the government, and two of the Teachers sponsored by the College. All necessary modern amenities one would expect in a decent accommodation in an urban area are provided in this housing. The headmaster, however, prefers to commute from Suhum because of family reasons; another teacher also prefers to commute from Suhum on his own bike because he is said to be involved in some part-time teaching activities at Suhum.

The project has been inspired by the visionary efforts of Governor Nehemiah of the Bible, who was able to accomplish the reconstruction of the broken walls of Jerusalem in a record time; in spite of some arduous challenges and attacks, he was able to complete the reconstruction work in 52 days, a task that had been abandoned for over 90 years, by his predecessors. Under the initiative of the Prof E. K. Larbi, a lot of work has been accomplished in a short period. Four Saturdays were earmarked for a major push of the project. The first Saturday was on 12th September, 2009 and the last Saturday, 10th October, 2009.

About 95 percent of the work on the existing JHS block has been done. To the glory of God, the first phase of the work is expected to be commissioned in December. The other phases of the work will still require greater determination and sacrifice but with the conviction that we are engaged in a good cause (championing the cause of the rural poor, the vulnerable and the disenfranchised), the good and gracious God whose work we are involved, will provide all the necessary resources. The efforts being made towards this project will be enhanced if electricity is extended to the community as quickly as possible. Already some monies have been previously collected by the leadership of the Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi community, and paid to some officials, ostensibly to enable power to be extended from Sowatey (a small township located between Suhum and Asamankese main road) to Kyenku Larbi. Nothing has happened yet!

Conclusion
We need to move away from the veneer and address the fundamental issues confronting our educational system. For nothing much happens without a vision; the good book says, without a vision, people ‘lose the sense of direction’ or ‘perish’ (Proverbs 29:18). The problems as outlined in the foregoing paragraphs are not typical of the Adimadim-Kyenku Larbi community; it is a microcosm of what is happening in rural Ghana as a whole. TV3 recently showed a documentary which depicted a similar situation in another community (TV3 News, Sunday, 11th October, 2009). It is not that we as a people do not have the power and the capacity to change the debilitating conditions that we often find ourselves; it is just that, like many areas, there has not been good leadership and clear sense of urgency and direction. Sometimes we just accept the status quo as the norm. We collectively fail to take any meaningful steps that will transform the situation that affect us as a people, especially if it does not directly affect those who are to take concrete action. For anything meaningful to happen, it will take visionary leadership, and a passion for change. It is true that the majority of the people in our nation are poor; it is also true that in spite of this fact, if all of us, especially those of us that are better endowed, will share what we have, the debilitating conditions of poverty, illiteracy, filth, and disease will be a thing of the past. It is hoped that this project will be completed and others will be able to replicate it in other parts of our nation and indeed our continent.

Without the collective efforts by all and sundry, especially the leaders and the privileged few, our nation and indeed our continent will continue to be numbered among the poorest of the board. Come on Board!





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