The harsh reality of kindergarten education in Bono
Indergarten (KG) education requires a stimulating and conducive environment to allow children to explore and grow academically.
It is a delicate and crucial sector in the country's educational journey, which is responsible for providing little children with the requisite skills, knowledge and competencies necessary for formal education.
Additionally, it's a foundational sector that prepares children both socially and emotionally to ensure their overall development through play-based learning activities and outdoor playtime.
The sector, which is a formative stage of the Ghanaian child’s educational journey, was made part of basic education by the government in 2007 to ensure that children are introduced to formal education at that formative stage of their development.
Ideally, KG education is supposed to have appropriate infrastructure with adequate teaching and learning materials such as toys, pictures, information books and children’s literature books with a lot of illustrations to give clues about unfamiliar words.
An Educator at Prairie Hills Elementary School District in the United States, Michael Kwame Appiah, told the Daily Graphic that KG was designed to engage children in activities that promote discovery, creativity, problem-solving abilities, reading and writing as well as strengthen their cognitive development.
He said those elements, particularly information books such as concept books, photographic essays, identification books, life cycle and experiment and activity books, contributed significantly to a child's development.
Situation in Bono
However, the situation is different in some public schools in the Bono Region as little children are studying without such learning materials and under dilapidated structures exposing them to danger and several bad weather conditions.
The dilapidated state of the Chiraa Islamic Basic School Kindergarten classroom block
During a visit by the Daily Graphic to the Chiraa Presbyterian Primary and KG and Chiraa Islamic Basic School in the Sunyani West Municipality, pupils were studying under uncompleted classroom blocks.
The structures have no befitting windows, compelling the authorities of the schools to close some of them with lumber.
When it rains with storms, water passes through the windows into the classrooms to disrupt teaching and learning.
Extreme heat
During daytime, there is extreme heat that emanates from the roofing sheets, while direct sunlight passes through the windows into the classrooms.
The KG pupils of Chiraa Presbyterian School shifted to one corner of the classroom to escape the direct sunlight from the windows
At the Chiraa Islamic Basic School, the KG facility has no windows to allow fresh air into the classrooms.
The architects only created small holes using blocks to serve as windows.
Lack of windows and ceilings on the KG structures has created extreme heat in the classrooms.
Another troubling issue about the facilities is that they have no light to enhance visibility in the classroom.
The situation is causing discomfort for the pupils, who find it difficult to participate in academic activities.
During the Daily Graphic’s visit to the Presbyterian Primary and KG, classes were in session, and it observed that the pupils seemed distracted by the current condition of their classrooms.
On that hot afternoon, not many of them were in class obviously because of the extreme heat in the classrooms.
Few who were in class with their facilitators were seen sweating, with some of them using their books to fan themselves.
It was devastating to see the little children struggling to cope under such hot conditions.
The authorities of the affected schools said the situation had resulted in a drastic reduction in KG enrolment.
They said they had to abandon classes anytime clouds gathered, which continued to disrupt teaching and learning.
Access, quality
Mr Appiah explained that the lack of adequate infrastructure at the KG level had contributed to limited access and quality education in the country.
One of the teachers facilitating academic activities at the Chiraa Presbyterian KG during a visit by the Daily Graphic
He said challenges confronting the delivery of quality public basic education, particularly KG, could be addressed if the government paid critical attention to the sector.
"I appeal to the government to increase budgetary allocation to basic education, to ensure that children in deprived communities are not left behind," Mr Appiah stated.
The Headteacher of the Chiraa Presbyterian Primary and KG, Hanson Boateng, also appealed to the government, institutions and organisations to assist the school with a modern classroom block to promote KG education in the area.
He expressed the hope that the provision of modern facilities would help increase the KG enrolment and improve teaching and learning.
Investigations
The Daily Graphic investigations revealed that there were several worse situations in other parts of the districts in the region as some of the districts were contending with huge infrastructure deficits in public KG schools.
Michael Kwame Appiah, An Educator at Prairie Hills Elementary School District in the United States
The KG infrastructure deficit has compelled little children to sit in dilapidated structures and under trees, which exposes them to reptiles such as snakes and scorpions.
Some of the schools have resorted to teaching the pupils under trees or in dilapidated structures or in some cases, combining KG one and KG two in one classroom.
In some cases, although the schools exist, they are in poor condition and have unsafe structures for teaching and learning.
Gap
In 2023, the Daily Graphic gathered from the Bono Regional Education Directorate that eight districts out of 12 have a total of 140 infrastructure deficits or gaps in the public preschool.
Hanson Boateng, Headteacher of the Chiraa Presbyterian Primary and KG
The eight districts, which then had a total enrolment of 39,199 pupils, were Wenchi Municipality with 62 infrastructure deficits, Dormaa West District, 42 and Dormaa Municipality, 35.
Others include Jaman South Municipality, 29; Tain District, 21; Banda District, 14; Jaman North District, six and Sunyani Municipality, which has an infrastructural deficit of six.
Additionally, in some rural and peri-urban communities in the region, children walk long distances to attend school in neighbouring communities due to the lack of facilities in their communities.
Huge gap
At a recent stakeholder forum on education in Sunyani organised by ActionAid Ghana, the Bono Regional Director of Education, Gabriel Antwi, explained that until recently, KG was not part of the mainstream basic education system in Ghana, which accounted for the huge infrastructure gap.
He said the current situation had a negative influence on the overall development of the pupils as the sector needed a conducive environment for pupils to play around to make them sound and active.
Mr Antwi said successive governments had made conscious efforts to improve the quality of educational delivery and educational infrastructure across the country to meet international standards.
He said despite the government’s efforts, there were still huge infrastructure gaps and appealed to the government to build modern and standard infrastructure for the educational system.
That, according to Mr Antwi, would pave the way for effective and efficient teaching and learning for high academic standards to be achieved.
Poor condition
The poor condition under which these little children study negatively affects their academic performance, as well as their social, emotional and overall development.
It is, therefore, not surprising that the 2015 Early Grade Literacy and Mathematics Assessment (Ghana Education Service 2015) report showed that by the second year of primary school, most pupils in Ghana are not yet able to read with fluency and accuracy.
It also indicated that the rote-based approach to mathematics instruction did not adequately prepare pupils for more complex mathematics in the higher grades.
The report said after four years of compulsory education (two years of kindergarten and two years of primary), only two per cent of pupils were attaining the desired standards for literacy.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Global Media Foundation (GloMeF), Raphael Godlove Ahenu, expressed the need for a national stakeholders’ dialogue on the infrastructure deficit at the KG level.
He explained that the dialogue would be used to solicit ideas to come out with strategies and policies to improve the KG sector.
Mr Ahenu partly blamed the huge deficit at the KG level on the long-term neglect of the sector.
He said Ghanaians should be worried about the poor state of some KG classrooms, particularly in rural communities, adding that some of the structures were serving as death traps.
“Our children are at risk because such buildings can collapse on them and reptiles can easily invade their classrooms.”
"At their age, they need a conducive learning environment,” Mr Ahenu stated.
Old structures
The Bono Regional Chairman of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), Kobina Afena-Sam, told the Daily Graphic that it was pathetic to see some old structures built during the colonial era still being used as classrooms for KG pupils.
To ensure the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG 4), which focuses on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030, there was the need for successive governments to invest massively in the improvement of educational facilities, particularly at the KG level.
Writer's email: biiya.ali@graphic.com.gh
