Pupils of the Boania Primary School in the Kasena – Nakana West district of the Upper East Region, are not exactly looking forward to returning to school after their current vacation.

This is because the roof of one of their classroom blocks has been blown off by a storm.

As a result, they are forced to end their lessons and close for the day, anytime it is threatening to rain.

Joy News correspondent, Albert Sore who visited the school just before their break for the vacation, reports that some of the children have stopped attending school completely because of the situation.

In March this year, a rainstorm blew away more than half of the roof of the Boania D/A Primary School’s upper primary block.

Since then, School authorities have struggled to rectify the situation.

They are compelled to combine two classes in one classroom for lessons and this creates congestion and discomfort for the pupils.

The walls of the classrooms have also developed cracks, whiles the headmistress and teachers of the school sit under a mango tree to do administrative work because the roof of their office was also blown off by the storm.

Headmistress of the Boania Primary School, Rebecca Alugivala told JoyNews, children in the community are losing interest in education because of the situation.

“This situation has also brought the enrollment of the school down because parents are afraid that when they bring their wards [to school]; in case another storm is coming, it will blow way the remaining roofing sheets on top of the building and this may wound their children. The parents feel the place is not safe for the children”, she said.

Members of the Boania community in their effort to help solve the problem, mobilized some funds to try and erect a temporary shelter for the pupils.

But that project has stalled due to lack of funds.

According to the Assembly member for Boania, Fedrick Awoviri, the decision was taken to put up a new shelter instead of re-roofing the existing classroom block because engineers at the district assembly inspected the school block and advised them to do so.

“We were able to raise GHC12, 000 and we went to consult the district engineer and the advice was that the old structure is beyond repair so it will not be prudent for us to use that little fund to try to repair the old structure”, he said.

“Therefore, we started with this structure; we wanted to raise a pavilion for the pupils to be able to learn in. We are hereby appealing to the government and other organizations that are seeing our plight to try and come to our aid”, Mr. Awoviri added.

The school’s enrollment has decreased from about 200 pupils to 164 in the just – ended term alone, according to the headmistress.  

Those children at the school who are still determined to keep pursuing their academic dreams despite the challenges, are appealing for help.

“The storm destroyed our school long ago, so we are begging the government to come and help us”, said Kwame Naboo, a Primary 5 pupil.

Another pupil, Reuben Chianaseh, said; “Now, we are forced to sit in one classroom. Teaching and learning is very difficult for us so please help us”.

For now, the pupils and teachers of the Boania Primary School can only pray for the arrival of the dry season, for it is their only hope of having uninterrupted days and maybe, lessons at school.