The Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Mr. Ato Essuman, has called for a stop in the use of honeycomb decorated cement blocks for the construction of school buildings, since they provided little illumination for proper visibility.

Mr. Essuman, who is also a Member of the Council of State, noted that the use of the blocks did not only blare the sight of school children as they stained their eyes to read but was also dangerous as they did not provide an escape route in case of any accident.

Addressing Heads of Departments and Assembly Members of the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District at Bream Asikuma, Mr. Essuman appealed to Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and community leaders to contact the Ghana Education Service (GES) for plans whenever they wanted to construct school buildings.

He urged District Assemblies to build teachers' quarters in remote communities to entice teachers to accept postings and transfers to such areas.

Mr. Essuman expressed concern about the delay in implementing the decentralization system even though the government had shown commitment and urged the Assemblies to be prepared to take on the additional responsibilities that it would impose on them.

He advised the electorate to elect people who could meet the challenges of the system as Assembly Members and urged chairmen of the sub-committees of the Assemblies to make efforts to improve their competence to meet the challenges ahead.

Mr. Essuman announced that the Ministry had taken steps to construct 3,200 school blocks within the next three years and promised that school buildings destroyed in rainstorms would be rehabilitated.

He advised school authorities to encourage the planting of trees on their compounds to serve as windbreaks.

Mr. Emmanuel Adjei Domson, District Chief Executive, appealed to the Chief Director to assist the Assembly to rehabilitate schools hit by recent rainstorms.

He said about 15 schools were affected in the area.

Mr. Kow Anyanful, District Director of Education, called on the Ministry to take a second look at the roofing designs of school buildings since they were the most vulnerable in rainstorms.

He appealed to GES to provide resources for the training of people recruited for the Teaching Assistant Module of the Youth Employment Programme.

Source: GNA