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Students resume academic work amid COVID-19
As pupils across the country return to school after nearly 10 months of closure due to COVID-19, the challenges of inadequate infrastructure have still resurfaced.
Ahead of the re-opening last Friday, some students and pupils in the capital, Accra, had prepared their classrooms and were ready to continue academic work which had been suspended for awhile.
Our photographer, Ms Lizzy Okai captured some students at the Accra Academy as they went through inspection and observation of safety protocols.
She had earlier visited the Emmanuel Presby Preparatory and Junior High Schools at Dansoman where the students were cleaning the environment. Thermometer guns, Veronica buckets, alcohol-based sanitisers among others were on site, with health personnel on standby to handle suspected COVID-19 cases.
Government had already fumigated a number of public schools and procured Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for students and pupils ahead of their return. But other schools have complained that, the PPE were yet to reach them.
Another photographer, Mr Geoffery Buta reports that some pupils at Jeninso in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region still carried tables and chairs on their heads to their respective classrooms to study.
In view of this, some parents have appealed to the government to come to the aid of the deprived schools and also fast-track the supply of PPE to schools where supply had delayed.
Besides, some parents have also threatened not to take their wards to school until they were satisfied with the safety arrangements for their wards.
Story and Pictures by Lizzy Okai and Geoffery Buta
The Member of Parliament for Nsawam Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh Dompreh, has expressed concern over delays in the release of the District Assemblies Common Fund, warning that the situation is stalling development across the country.
On his facebook page, he described as a matter of urgent national importance, the Minority Chief Whip pointed to what he sees as a growing crisis of unpaid contractors, abandoned projects, and halted infrastructure works in many districts.
He noted that several communities are grappling with half completed schools, unfinished health facilities, abandoned markets, deteriorating roads, and stalled sanitation projects.
According to him, many contractors who have executed projects for district assemblies have not been paid, forcing some construction firms to demobilise from sites while workers lose their jobs.
He stressed that the District Assemblies Common Fund is not a discretionary allocation but a constitutional requirement under Article 252 of the 1992 Constitution, intended to support development at the local level.
In his view, years of delayed releases and accumulated arrears have weakened district development financing and disrupted projects meant to improve living conditions in communities.
He further argued that some payments made in recent years were largely the settlement of old debts rather than funding for new or ongoing projects, a situation he believes has affected contractor confidence and local economic activity.
He described the issue as more than a budgetary challenge, characterising it as a development emergency and a governance concern.
He therefore urged the appropriate authorities to pay outstanding DACF arrears, settle contractors who have completed their work, and ensure that transfers to districts are automatic and predictable.
He maintained that decentralisation can only succeed when district assemblies receive adequate and timely funding to carry out development projects.
He emphasised that stalled projects directly affect ordinary citizens, since they rely on such infrastructure for education, healthcare, transportation, sanitation, and economic activities.
He called for renewed attention to grassroots development, insisting that national progress should not be concentrated only in major cities but extended to all communities.
By: Jacob Aggrey
Richard Appiah, the footballer who killed two children and stored part of their bodies in a fridge at Abesim in the Bono Region in 2021 has been handed a lifetime sentence.
This was after a five member panel of judges at the Accra High Court returned a verdict of guilty against the convict.
Appiah, 32, also a draughtsman would spend the rest of his life in prison after he was convicted of murder.
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BY MALIK SULLEMANA
