The Mayor of Tamale, Sule Salifu has appealed to community members in the metropolis to stop stealing and selling school furniture to scrap dealers.

He said the attention of the assembly has been drawn to reports of some communities selling the metal parts of the furniture to scrap dealers while the wooden part is used as firewood.

The Major raised this concern when he presented 700 double desks to seven schools in the metropolis.

According to the assembly, the current furniture deficit in schools in the Tamale Metropolis is about one thousand.

Speaking at the handing over of the furniture, Tamale Mayor, Sule Salifu said the assembly is working to help ensure effective teaching and learning in schools in the area.

He said the aim of the assembly is not just to ensure that children are educated, but have quality education.

”As part of our commitment to provide access to education and create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning, the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly has procured this furniture for our basic schools. Today, we are doing 700, furniture to our schools. Last three weeks, the assembly and ACTION AID made similar donations to the schools,” he said.

The Mayor thanked the Ministries of Local Government and Finance for their support in the procurement of the furniture.

He appealed to chiefs and other stakeholders in the various communities to help maintain the furniture.

"We want to appeal to the communities to show interest in keeping these chairs for the purpose for which it was donated. We are told that in many of the communities, these chairs are stolen and sold to scrap dealers, the wooden part is used for firewood. I want to say that it is not the best for our children as far as quality education for our children is concerned,” the Mayor said.

According to him, to address the furniture situation in the metropolis, the assembly will spend a chunk of the 4.2 million of the Social Cohesion Project (SOCO) fund, which will be disbursed this year to procure furniture for the remaining schools. He said part of the funds will also be used to build an Astroturf for the Zogble cluster of schools.

The SOCO project is a government of Ghana and World Bank-funded project which is expected to finance investments in projects such as feeder roads, dams, boreholes and other social infrastructure such as schools, school furniture, markets among others.

This investment is expected to impact directly the lives of the people in communities that will be part of the project.