Ga Odumase schools need classrooms

The cluster of schools at Ga Odumase near Pokuase in the Ga West Municipality in Accra is crying for additional classrooms to meet the growing population of the schools.
Currently, some of the students attend classes in uncompleted houses and private facilities of residents and under sheds and under trees.

The schools, namely Ga Odumase MA 1, Ga Odumase MA 2 and Ga Odumase MA 3, were established from the Odumase Amanfrom Primary school, which was then the only basic school in Ga Odumase and its surrounding towns.

Some of the students and pupils who patronise the schools are from Nsakina, Amarmoley, Ollebu, Sonitra, Ablekuma, Fiase and Pokuase.

The Headmistress of the Ga Odumase MA 1, Mrs Elizabeth Ogbeh, said the Odumase Amanfrom School was established in 1985 by the Odumase community, with 69 pupils under three wooden structures.

She explained that as the population of the school grew, the school authorities decided to form the Ga Odumase MA1 School, which later also gave birth to the Ga Odumase MA 2 and MA 3.

The cluster of schools, now with a total population of 1366 students and pupils, also runs shift as a result of accommodation problem.

She paid tribute to one Mr Twumasi, Nii Sowah, the youth chief of Ga Odumase, and parents of children of the school for their various contributions towards the construction of the new primary block.

The headmistress of Odumase MA 2, Ms Helen Kanwelbal, said the school moved into an uncompleted private facility in 2009 through the arrangement of the Chief of Ga Odumase, Nii Acquah II, to enable academic work to continue.

She said although the Ga West Municipal Assembly had completed a three-classroom block for the school to accommodate the junior high school soon, it was not enough because the terms entered with the owner of the private facility, that currently houses the primary school, would end this year and this might force the school authorities to hold classes in the open.

She added that because there were no doors and windows to the buildings, some outsiders entered the premises and destroyed some items.

The Chief of Odumase, Nii Acquah, at a meeting with the heads of the schools to find solutions to the accommodation problems of the schools, made a passionate appeal to the government, individuals and philanthropists to come to the aid of the school.

By Emmanuel Quaye/Daily Graphic/Ghana