The Tanbaare Roman Catholic junior high school in the Wa West district of the Upper West region who share their classroom with snakes and worshippers are appealing to government and other benevolent organizations to come to their aid.

They also complain of poor ventilation and fear they could be an outbreak of Cerebro Spinal Meningitis (CSM). 

They are without a school building of their own and they depend on two makeshift structures built with sticks, straw and thatch roof and a borrowed small room used for church service by the Roman Catholics.  

The JHS 1&2 students use the two makeshift structures as their classrooms whilst the borrowed church building is reserved for their senior colleagues at JHS 3. The structures also serve as an abode for snakes, reptiles and scorpions.

It was established about ten years ago and has a pupil population of about 70 pupils. 

Even though the purpose of the makeshift structure is to prevent them from being exposed to the mercy of the weather, they are now vulnerable to them. The structure is now worn out and on the verge of collapsing.

Boyi Michael the senior prefect of the school said, "the classroom is hot so we remove our uniforms because we are mostly soaked with sweat. The girls use their books as fans which always destroy the books. We are appealing to government and other benevolent organizations to come to our aid". 

The JHS 3 pupils are not comfortable using a church building as their classroom. There are cracks all over the walls, which many students describe it as a death trap waiting to cause disaster.

Senior girl’s prefect of the school, Comfort Yorkuun is uncomfortable about the station.

She narrated to Joy News' Rafiq Salam when they were in class when they "saw a big snake coming from the thatched roof. The teacher asked us to kill it, but we were not able to. Sitting in that makeshift classroom makes it uncomfortable because we never know when it will come back."

During the examination period, all three classes are crammed together in the church room to write their papers.  

The situation is not different at their primary school even though the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) is constructing a 6-unit classroom with ancillary facilities for them.

The pupils are studying in classrooms built with mud bricks, cow dung and thatch, which are on the verge of collapsing.

Both schools lack teachers with the primary school having four teachers taking care of over three hundred pupils.

For fear of being victimized, teachers from both schools refused to speak to the Joy News team.