Four pupils to one desk: The painful plight of schools in New Juaben North

The New Juaben North Education Directorate in Ghana's Eastern Region has called for additional desks and chairs for schools in the area, as up to four students have been forced to share a single desk due to a furniture shortage. Head of Planning and Statistics at the Directorate, Okyere Boateng Samuel, highlighted that this shortage negatively impacts the learning environment and creates challenges for both students and teachers.

The situation is so dire that it makes it difficult to create the conditions necessary for effective teaching and learning.

The municipal assembly had recently donated over 1,000 chairs to the Education Directorate, which they welcomed but noted that more furniture is still required to address the issue. Samuel Boateng Samuel is now urging the government, relevant authorities, organizations, and stakeholders to provide more desks and chairs to improve the conditions in these schools.

Municipal Chief Executive Samuel Adongo explained that the donation of furniture is part of efforts to implement a government directive for Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies to use part of the District Assembly Common Fund for this purpose. He visited schools and witnessed students sitting on the classroom floor due to a lack of desks and chairs. This initiative was necessary to improve conditions in schools and ensure that students can learn in a more suitable environment.

The distributed chairs will be given to schools identified by the Education Directorate as having insufficient furniture.