The Ministry of Education says its initial investigations into the Sene East drowning incident is pointing to the need for new schools to be sited in the island communities.

This, when done, would put an end to students crossing river bodies to attend school in adjoining communities.

The spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, Kwasi Kwarteng said this in an interview aired on JoyNews’ Midday News on Thursday.

“If you look at the preliminary report that came in, one of the recommendations is that GES is exploring if it could even site schools, because now you realise that even though the communities are about 850, there is a possibility that some of the adjoining communities could also fill the school if it is established” he stated.

This comment follows eight pupils, unfortunately, dying while crossing the Volta Lake to school in the area this week.

Earlier, the Sene East District Chief Executive, Jerome Kofi Gyimah while commenting on the incident asked for the Education Ministry to address the needs of the island communities.

According to him, he has submitted a list of teachers for Ghana Education Service (GES) to employ in the island communities due to the inadequate number of teachers.

“I went to Education Minister, Dr Adutwum several times requesting for those teachers to be employed and here is the case they have not been employed and we still have inadequate number of teachers. So assuming that we are having enough teachers, those there could have gotten annexed at Wayokope school for teachers to stay and teach the children,” he said.

But, Mr Kwarteng says some teachers posted to the area tend to abandon post due to the conditions in the area.

This, he noted was a challenge to the Education Ministry.

“The surrounding schools, mostly when you post teachers there, a lot of them are unable to take their appointments because a lot of them prefer to stay in the bigger towns….some of them have to commute about two hours before they reach these 10 schools within the island.

“So you have teachers being posted there, most times about a year or two, some of them even vacate their posts which is a very difficult challenge,” he lamented.

When asked why the pupils were without life jackets while crossing the river, he replied “they ought to have life jackets for them.”

Meanwhile, the Sene East District Police command is investigating circumstances that led to the drowning of the eight school children on Volta Lake, on Monday.