The Chief and people of Kpintalga, a farming community in the Sagnarigu Municipality have expressed worry over the assembly’s failure to ensure that the only school which was built for the community since 2015 is open for the use of their children. They find it disappointing that the project, which could for the first time give the children of the area access to education, is left to rot. Kpintalga, a few kilometers from the Northern Regional Capital Tamale has no single child in school.
Children work on farms and do household chores. Families rely on seasonal harvests and thus struggle with basic access to essential needs and services like medical care and clean water. The Member of Parliament Alhassan Sayibu Suhuyini has constantly been on the heels of the assembly and the education directorate to open the school.
He also recently drew the attention of the Sagnarigu Director of Education to the abandonment of the project when he donated 250 desks and five sets of office furniture for six schools in the constituency.
“The community that I’m worried about is Kpintalga. It is a community that is growing and if you go there all the time and the children are not in school, it’s disturbing. Those of us who have had the opportunity to go to school, how are we faring not to talk of them not experiencing education. So it was something that I kept in mind but the assembly said they would look into that and get them a school blook. They did their part. I think since the days of Sorugudoo as DCE the construction of the school started. As we speak now, I’m told the school block is completed but when I visited the community recently, the chief appealed to me that the school is still under key. So I will stand here and appeal to director and assembly to intervene” Alhaji Suhuyini said.
The Director of Education Alhassan Alidu Junior in his response says the school was sited without the recourse to the population of the community. He explains schools must be sited at areas that can attract many students, especially from adjourning communities.
“The reason why the school is still under lock is because we have a policy that if a school is going to be built in a community, it must be sited in an area where adjourning communities can send their children to that school but if we just listen to appeals to communities and give them schools and we send teachers there, we won’t get students. When I went there the last time I told the assemble to tell the chief to write names of children who would be attending the school up to now, the names are still not submitted” the director explained. However, Kpintal-Naa Alhassan Zakaria did not hide his displeasure with the authority’s refusal to open up the school for use.
“Government has forgotten of us because if we are closer to Tamale and no single child is in school in this community. And you deceived us to build this school block and let it to rot. Our main occupation is farming which is gradually dying. So appealing to government to loom into the matter and open up the so for use to prevent out kids from roaming about aimlessly” the chief lamented.
By: Saani Mohammed Lukman/zaanews.com/Ghana