LYING on the Akatawia-Sekesua road about 40 kilometres from Asesewa is Bormase Whenya, a scattered community.
The community, together with other adjoining settlements such as Korlewa, Bukunya, Bormase Tenya and Buku Yiti, constitutes one of the populous settlements in the Upper Manya Krobo District with a total population of approximately 3,000.
The people, most of whom have their houses situated on their farmlands, cultivate foodstuffs such as maize, plantain, cocoyam, cassava and almost all the varieties of yam.
They also rear animals such as goats, sheep and fowls primarily for their own consumption and for the market.
The hard-working farmers, who under normal circumstances, should have been able to cultivate such crops on a large scale or keep flocks of such animals, produce very little with very low earnings that can hardly cater for their upkeep due to lack of capital for expansion of such ventures.
Worst of all, the community lacks almost all the basic necessities of life such as good drinking water, clinic or electricity although the power transmission lines pass through the community while the only access road that links it with other parts of the district, the Sekesua-Akatawia road, is full of potholes, making it a death trap.
The only social amenity in the community, the District Assembly (D/A) Primary School which was constructed about half a century ago, is itself a dilapidated structure with some of the walls built with mud, periodically falling off, especially during the rainy season, making it impossible for classes to be conducted during the wet season because the classrooms get flooded.
The most pathetic situation is that the building that used to house the kindergarten, recently collapsed. As a result, the infants study under canopies made with palm leaves.
To compound the situation, the entire infant/pupil population of the school of 140 in seven classrooms depends on only 20 dual desks for classes so the pupils use the desks in turns.
Despite such a horrible spectacle, the pupils have over the years, performed well academically and most of them normally get admission to junior high schools at nearby Sekesua, Asesewa or Odumase Krobo.
In view of the pupils’ outstanding performance, the school won the admiration of both the Manya District Directorate of Education and the district assembly, and was therefore selected to be transformed into a model school (Jubilee School) in 2007 with the provision of modern classrooms, teachers’ bungalows and other amenities.
As expected, the motivation brought relief to the community whose inhabitants readily made available a prepared plot of land for construction to begin on the project.
However, after nearly eight months when nothing had started, some of the inhabitants claimed that a radio station had announced that the project had commenced in earnest so they believed the project had been shifted elsewhere.
“The plan for the project was shown to us on February 2, 2007 by Messrs David Sackitey Asare and Joe Sam, the District Chief Executives for Lower Manya Krobo and Upper Manya Krobo, respectively and the Deputy District Director of Education, Mr D.O. Tetteh, after which we heard from one of the radio stations that constructional work had started which is not true,” the school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) chairman, Mr I.T. Quarshie stated.
The school’s Management Committee Chairman, Mr Emmanuel Osom Djeagbo, corroborated Mr Quarshie’s story and said he together with the community’s headman (Dadematse), Mr David Akwetey and the queen, Manye Mamle, followed up to the assembly on many occasions without any positive result, and wondered whether the project would be executed at all.
Both Messrs Sackitey Asare and Joe Sam admitted that the school had been selected to be transformed into a model school in the district, stressing that the project would under no circumstances be diverted to another community.
According to Mr Asare, since the project would involve a lot of money, it would take a little more time to begin, adding that all things being equal, the project would start in March, next year.
Mr Joe Sam, however, indicated that in the interim, a structure would be provided for the kindergarten class within the next two weeks to enable the kids to attend normal classes.
“We are concerned about the plight of the kids and pupils so the assembly will do its best to transform the school to a model one with furniture and all the required facilities that go with it,” Mr Sam stated.
Although the two district assemblies are taking steps to transform the school, it will not be out of place if non-governmental organisations such as Plan Ghana, which had already provided many school buildings in the area go to the rescue on time.
This is necessary because the longer the delay, the more the pupils and kids suffer.
Should that happen, it would have negative impacts on the development of the community whose inhabitants also need micro finance to boost their farming ventures so as to lead decent lives.
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