Kwahu Afram Plains North: Memchemfre Community Day School ‘collapses’

The Memchemfre Community Day School in the Kwahu Afram Plains North district in the Eastern Region has ‘collapsed’ after seven years of operation.

The situation has left subject teachers posted to the community stranded as their fate hang in the balance over reposting.

In 2016, the Memchemfre community day school became operational after it was commissioned by the NDC government as part of the first phase of the community day school module.

The same year, residents in adjoining communities were thrown into a state of jubilation as they enrolled their wards, desirous of impacting society through education.

Professional teachers were also posted to the school by the Ghana Education Service. Although the school is not the only second cycle learning institution in the Kwahu Afram Plains North district, it remained the preferred choice for parents and students who had enrolled in the school due to the quality of teachers posted.

Eight years down the lane, the school has collapsed. The precinct of the school has been taken over by bush while the ceiling of the e-block are dislodging.

Teachers say, last year, a little over four hundred students were posted to the Memchemfre Community Day School by the computerized school selection and placement but only one reported to the school to obtain prospectus but failed to enroll.

The siting of the school, the absence of accommodation facilities for students and teachers and the long distances students have to cover to school each day have been underscored by parents as reasons for the collapse of the school.

The Assistant Supervisor at the Kwahu Afram Plains North District Education Directorate, Moses Tanyigbe confirmed the school’s collapse to 3news.com but added that stakeholders in the district are considering other purposes that the classroom block will serve.

Kwahu Afram Plains District Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, GNAT, Obeng Koranteng Addae expressed worry that teachers posted to the school are not having the opportunity to professionally execute their passion for teaching.

Some parents who were happy to have seen the commissioning of the community day school to residents in catchment areas are now disappointed about the news of the school’s collapse.

For stakeholders in education in the district, the collapsed school can be revived if ancillary facilities are provided and the day school is converted to a second-tier boarding school.

But the District GNAT Secretary proposed the conversion of the school into a college of education so that teachers trained could be retained to address the high teacher deficit in the rural schools.

Teachers posted to the Memchemfre community day school to render service are now stranded in the community as they have not been in active service for more than a year but receive monthly salary.

Periodically, they stroll on the compound to provide temporal security for the school as they await the district education directorate to grant them release to other areas where their services are needed.