Manle Dada, African Unity schools’ renovation begins today

Renovation works are set to begin today on the infrastructure of the Manle Dada and African Unity Basic schools in the La Dade-Kotopon Municipality in the Greater Accra Region.

The schools, located behind the La General Hospital premises, were destroyed by a rainstorm in May and the early part of last month.

Two private entities, Puma Energy and Goldkey Properties Ltd, have agreed to fund the renovation of the two schools.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of La Dade-Kotopon (LaDMA), Rev. Solomon Kotey Nikoi, said the renovation works would begin today.

This came to light when the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, visited the schools to assess the extent of damage and the way forward.

The renovation, estimated to cost GH¢1 million, is expected to be completed within three months.

In the interim, the assembly, in collaboration with the Municipal Education Directorate, has made arrangements to move the affected students to a nearby school to ensure that academic work is not interrupted. 

Recall

The Daily Graphic reported in its Thursday, November 28 edition that the fate of over 400 pupils in the Manle Dada and African Unity Basic schools hung in the balance after the roofs of their classrooms were ripped off.

The story indicated that the fate of the children hung in the balance, given that basic schools were scheduled to reopen today. 

Following that report, Mr Quartey visited the two schools to assess the situation for action to be taken to repair the roofs.

Commendation

The minister commended the LaDMA MCE and his team for taking steps to fix the school blocks.

He urged the assembly and the education directorate to do all within their means to ensure that the work was completed on time.

Mr Quartey also commended the two companies that had come in to renovate the two schools.

“Education is a right for every child in Ghana and the children in this area cannot be left out.

I know that LaDMA has done a lot of investment in education. So,

I know that you will work with these private entities to fix these classrooms as a matter of necessity,” he said. 

Assurance

Rev. Nikoi assured the minister that based on his engagement with Puma Energy and Goldkey Properties, he was optimistic that the work would be delivered on schedule.

"As an assembly, we have procurement processes to go through, but we are pushing hard to ensure that by Tuesday next week, the renovation work will begin.

It is going to cost us close to GH¢1 million, and we call on private entities to come and support us," he said.

The LaDMA MCE added that the assembly was undertaking similar renovation works in other schools across the municipality as part of the commitment to promote education.

For her part, Ms Kotomah said arrangements had been made to keep the Primary School pupils from both schools in the section of the Manle Dada School that had not been affected by the rainstorm while the Junior High School (JHS) students were sent to a nearby school for the next three months.

"The South La JHS was under construction, so we put the pupils at Tenashie.

But, we have completed the work at South La, so we will bring them back to their school and move the affected pupils from the Manle Dada and African Unity Basic schools to Tenashie JHS.

"We believe that with this temporary arrangements, the students will not lose out in terms of academic work," she added.

She said the same approach had been used in the past for schools which suffered a similar fate but academic work had been effective.

"I want to assure all parents, concerned citizens of La and Ghana that these children will go to school when school reopens next week Tuesday.

I am working hard with the LaDMA MCE and we will ensure that no child stays out of school because their classrooms have been ripped off," she stressed.

Background

A nine-unit classroom block and adjoining offices at the African Unity School had their roofs completely ripped off in May, this year and are yet to be renovated.

In the case of Manle Dada Basic School, three out of the nine-unit classroom block were destroyed by a rainstorm on September 22.

When the Daily Graphic visited the two schools, which share the same compound, on Monday, September 25, it was observed that the entire African Unity School block was in total ruins.

The story at the Manle Dada Basic School was not any different from that of African Unity School as the roofs of three of the nine-unit classroom block had also been ripped off.