Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Yaw Mensah Opoku, says the manner in which the government is being portrayed in regard to education infrastructure challenges in basic schools is unjust.

According to him, government was making several interventions to help resolve challenges facing some primary schools in the country, such as portrayed in JoyNews series, Ghana’s Schools of Shame, in which education infrastructure challenges in basic schools in some districts of the country were highlighted.

The spokesperson, therefore, asserted that it was unfair to say that basic schools had been neglected by the Akufo-Addo-led administration.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Probe, Sunday, he said to host Emefa Apawu, “At the basic level, you are not looking at one pupil to a desk. Basically, what we do supply are dual desks.”

“I’m giving you these figures for you to understand that what we’re painting as a total neglect at the basic level, that is not the case. That is the picture I’m painting for you.

“We need to understand from that context that what government is supplying out to basic schools, are part of the measures government is putting out so that we can achieve or get to the limit that we all seek to have. And if we paint a gloomy picture out there where specifically, we don’t mention some of the interventions government is making in there, it becomes very unfortunate, and government can equally say that is disheartening.”

Mr Opoku highlighted some of the efforts being made by the government to support and facilitate basic education.

He disclosed that “just this Friday only, as part of the efforts, the Ghana Education Service (GES), led by government as the Director General himself travelled all the way from Accra to Sene East where the disaster occurred to have firsthand information about that intervention that the government has made.”

The spokesperson indicated that he also travelled to provide life jackets to primary school students in the area to prevent the recurrence of the disaster, in which some eight students in the area drowned in the Volta Lake on their way to school.

He reiterated that rather than characterising the government as neglecting primary schools, it would be fair to urge it to step up its efforts to address the educational issues in those institutions.