Some residents of Ga, a community in the Wa West District, have bemoaned the poor state of the Ga basic school, which is adversely affecting effective academic work.

They complained that the school was not renovated since its construction in the early 1950s, leaving the structures dilapidated as the classroom doors and windows are broken while the walls are tainted.

Some of the residents told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) during a visit to the community to ascertain some development initiatives and deficits at the community.

Mr Maalibunaa Saaka, Unit Committee Chairman for Ga Electoral Area, appealed to the government to take the necessary steps to ensure infrastructure improvement to improve academic work.

"This school was built in the 1950s but it has since not been renovated. I attended this school in 1963.

"All the windows and doors are broken, there is no furniture. The children whose parents cannot afford chairs for them have to sit on the floor," he said.

He said the community mobilized to fix the doors and secured some furniture for the school about 20 years ago, but that they had all broken and needed support to replace them.

He said the teachers' furniture had also broken, saying, "If you see the teachers' tables, it's a shame".

Mr Saaka also noted that the school had no befitting facility to accommodate the Kindergarten children since the existing Kindergarten facility, which was provided by the community some years back had outlived its usefulness.

The Unit Committee Chairman acknowledged the importance of education to the development of the community and the nation at large, but that the current education policies such as free education had discouraged parents from supporting the school.

Mr Mahama Saaka, the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) Chairman of the school, observed that the school population had outgrown the existing infrastructure, saying, "some of the classes have children up to 62 but the classrooms are not large."

He, therefore, appealed to the government and benevolent individuals and organisations to come to their aid by providing the community with a befitting school infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Mr Loggu-Naa Mumuni, the Assembly Member for the area, told the GNA that the refurbishment of the school was captured in the District Assembly's Medium Term Development Plan but was not yet to be budgeted for.

He also indicated that he had "verbally" communicated to the Wa West Constituency Member of Parliament, Superintendent Peter Lanchene Toobu (Rtd), regarding the challenges facing the school, but was yet to officially write to him on that.