Several marginalized communities in the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly have limited access to essential educational materials such as books and other stationery in their schools.

This negatively impacts pupils' academic performance.

The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST), is thus spearheading an intervention by distributing exercise books to some schools.

Stationery such as exercise books, pencils, pens, and other vital materials, are vital for both teachers and pupils in basic schools.

Many deprived communities in the country struggle to provide the necessary resources to support effective teaching and learning. 

Lack of these essential basic learning materials influences poor performance and creates educational disparities between students from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers.

Kaase M/A Primary and JHS host 975 students.

According to the Headmistress of Kaase M/A Basic School, Rita Dela, the situation hinders teachers’ ability to assist pupils in their studies. 

“Exercise books and other materials have been a problem in this school.  Some of our children are from poor and broken homes so their parents are unable to afford for them. Some of them I can say have not gotten books to write in since school reopened.

“Unfortunately, we cannot also use the unavailability of books as a yardstick to sack them. If you push the parents and they cannot afford, you just can’t do anything. BOST's donation is a relief to us. The kids have received them and they are very happy. And I think it will encourage them to study and come to school quite often,’’ she said. 

Government Relations, Corporate Social Responsibility and Protocol Manager at BOST, Yaw Antwi-Dadzie, explained that the gesture forms part of the company’s corporate social responsibility.

It is part of a 100,000 exercise book donation project to support community schools in BOST's operational areas.

“We assessed all our impacted communities that surround our depots and our infrastructure. This is a 100,000-exercise book donation project to support these communities. Those we are donating to the Kaase M/A Primary and JHS are 5,000. Each student is going home with 5 exercise books. 

“We believe that one of the key areas that we can support the community is to support the students. If anything happens to our company, they are the ones who bear the brunt. We believe that as we support them in the area of education, they will grow to become the future leaders who will build this community in which we find ourselves.

“We have a corporate social responsibility project we are executing, and as part of this, we have an educational scholarship scheme that we have already put in place for our impacted communities, supporting 50 brilliant but needy students,” he said. 

The Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company is a private limited liability company with the government of Ghana as the sole shareholder.