Children in rural Ghana must be given the same educational opportunities as those in urban centres if the country is to close its development gap, the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources has said.
Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ellembelle, made the remarks during the commissioning of two three-unit Junior High School classroom blocks at Mandugbane and Atabebo in the Western Region.
Neither community previously possessed a Junior High School, forcing children to walk up to four kilometres each day to reach the nearest classroom. In Mandugbane, lessons were held inside a local church building due to the lack of dedicated infrastructure.
Mr Buah described the new facilities as transformative, noting that investment in underserved areas is vital to ensuring rural students can progress through to tertiary education and compete fairly with their urban peers.
The projects were funded by the Ellembelle District Assembly using its Internally Generated Funds alongside the District Assemblies Common Fund.
District Chief Executive Joseph Agyekum urged the beneficiary communities to safeguard the new buildings, emphasizing that while the government remains responsible for delivering infrastructure, local residents share the duty of maintaining it for future generations.
Abraham Amoothey, a teacher at Mandugbane, expressed relief at the completion of the block, explaining that operating out of a borrowed church space had posed severe operational challenges for both staff and pupils.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana