The Ghana Education services will in the coming days and weeks close down the Rashadiya Islamic Primary school in the Upper East regional capital, Bolgatanga.
The Municipal Assembly in Bolgatanga has accepted the request of the Municipal Directorate of education to close down Rashadiya Islamic Primary School.
Reasons why the GES wants to close down Rashadiya Islamic Primary School in Bolgatanga
The reason for this unusual decision to close the school is as a result of years of dwindling enrollment. This has largely been because of two main factors of poor sanitary conditions and the lack of space for expansion.
The school situated in the Damweo Electoral Area has two major poor sanitary conditions that are affecting smooth academic work. They are double dose of a toilet facility and a refuse dump which are very close to the school.
The stench coming from both the toilet and refuse dam are unbearable and it gets even worse when they burn the refuse in the dump.
This has greatly affected the number of numbers in the school as parents are withdrawing their wards in droves due to the situation. However, the proprietor of the school either for monetary considerations or reasons best known to him alone is kicking against the decision to close down the school.
GES sought for permission to close down Rashadiya Islamic Primary School in Bolgatanga
The Ghana Education Service(GES) in a long letter to the assembly about their intention to close down the school catalogued a number of reasons for the closure. The stated for example that the former Headmistress of the school died last month from a heart and lung-related disease. This they stated is directly linked to the insanitary conditions around the school.
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The education body also indicated that the 9 teachers of the school are under underutilized since the student population of the school ( from the KG to class 6) does not meet the number of students in normal GES-approved classroom.
It is rather pathetic that the entire population of the Rashadiya Islamic Primary School from basic one to six is forty-one (41) with all the classes having single numbers.
The Municipal Chief executive, the honorable Rex Asanga said the closure of the school which is to take place next term will be in the best interest of the few students(learners) left.
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“The issue of Rashadiya Islamic Primary School has been running for some time now so we came to see if there has been some improvement but from what we have seen, the enrollment is so low and some classes have three being taught by a teacher and I don’t think that it is sustainable to keep this school running.
So, come next term, we will close down the school, and redistribute the teachers and the learners because the numbers and the environmental conditions do not augur well for the continued operation of the school.”
