There are numerous viewpoints about location of these E-blocks and whether they should have been completed by now.

Granted that some of these schools were built in places far from human habitation (i will find time and talk about the relationship between the location of schools and access to education later), let's do a little analysis on the E-block in the Ketu South district.

There are supposed to be 12 e-blocks in the volta region (including now Oti region). The one in Ketu south is located at Agblekpui-Afloa.

That district has 6 SHS institutions. 4 are public and 2 are private. Two (1 public, 1 private) of these schools are in a rural setting while 4 are in urban areas. The total enrollment for these schools is 5,742 (5623 from public and 119 from private) (EMIS, 2019/2020).

Now, check this, the total enrollment for primary and JHS is given as;

Primary Public - 24, 655
Primary Private - 13, 852

For JHS;

Public - 10, 603
Private - 3918

Now, the district is able to admit a maximum of 5,700 at SHS while it produces around 14,000 pupils for SHS/TVET.

I am not oblivious of the fact that, some will select schools outside the district but if the idea is to strengthen day system and the CSSPS encourages students to select one compulsory school in their district.

It means that a total 14,000 students are made to select only 4 public SHS in the Ketu South district.

So, whatever the challenge is in completing any E-block, a government that is committed to creating assess to education by removing the financial barrier should be the first to focus on targeting districts such as Ketu South where demand for secondary education exceeds the number of SHSs available.

Now seized with all these FACTS, is it not justifiable if anyone (forget it if its a chief or an ordinary teacher or any citizen from that area) calls for a speedy reopening of such an infrastructure in February (remember these students writing BECE in November will start their academic life in SHS mid January).

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The author, Peter Anti is the Executive Director of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST).