The Obuasi East Municipal Assembly (OEMA), one of the newly created districts in the Ashanti Region, is to abolish the shift system, which is currently being operated in public basic schools within the municipality by the end of June this year.
The move is to enhance contact hours to improve teaching and learning in schools, and make education – a basic human right – more accessible to the people, most of whom are in deprived communities.
Carved out from the Obuase Municipality, the area lacks some essential social amenities, including school infrastructure, roads, health, potable water systems, and market facilities to help open it up for commerce and onwards development.
The Assembly, through its Common Fund and internally generated funds, is working cautiously to tackle its challenges, with improved education as a key factor on the Assembly’s scale of preference.
Infrastructural development
The Assembly’s move to end the shift system was evident when the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the assembly, William Kofi Adzowu, together with some dignitaries, cut separate sods for the construction of some infrastructural projects in the area.
The projects are a three-unit classroom (JHS block) for the Asonkore M/A Methodist School at Asonkore, a two-unit KG block for the people of Nyamesomyede, and a seven-unit health centre, as well as an adjoining two-bedroom semi-detached nurses’ quarters at Domeabra.
All of these projects are to be completed and handed over to the assembly by June, to help bridge the education sector gap and improve its healthcare delivery.
“Once these projects are released to the assembly, the shift system will be a thing of the past.
We are left with two schools. By June, these school blocks will be ready to absorb them (pupils). So we need to end the shift system in our Metropolis,” the MCE reiterated.
Lack of lands
One key issue that retarded the developmental agenda of the area, the MCE said, was the lack of land for infrastructural development.
“Our people need social amenities: schools, markets, health centres, recreational centres, but where are the lands?” the MCE queried, and called on the traditional authorities to make lands available for the government’s numerous social-intervention initiatives.
Commendation
The Planning and Statistics Officer at the Ghana Education Service (GES), Obuase East, Ofori Ansah, commended the government for the infrastructural development.
For her part, the Queenmother of Kwabenakwa, Nana Amoakowaa III, commended the government for bringing development into the area.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh