Mayor of Accra, Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije on Friday launched an endowment fund to enable the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) meet the critical challenge confronting public schools.
It would also help to put an end to the shift system which gives pupils only four hours of studies instead of the required eight hours.
"We will endeavour to get structures to house the 70,000 children who due to the shift system are denied quality education," Dr Vanderpuije said.
He said that the Metropolitan Education Directorate was compelled to adopt the shift system some years ago where a classroom was shared between two classes for the morning and afternoon.
Dr. Vanderpuije said "This is unfair to our future leaders" and noted that there was the need to arrest the situation until the needed resources were made available to build the over 2,000 classrooms needed in the metropolis.
He said that AMA would need about six million Ghana cedis to provide 84 pavilions with six units for primary and 45 pavilions with three units of classroom in each for Junior High Schools (JHS), 13,600 pieces of dual desks
for primary and 7,327 for JHS, 1,349 set of teachers' chairs and tables and 1,172 storage cupboards for primary and JHS in addition to few structures that needed to be rehabilitated for use as an interim measure.
Dr Vanderpuije also an educationalist, appealed to the business community, financial institutions, information technology services
providers, telecommunication operators, oil distribution companies, airline companies, churches, international organizations such UNICEF, USAID, World Vision, Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), philanthropists at home and abroad to donate in cash to the Accra main branch of National
Investment Bank Account number 1000100585501.
"The AMA also welcomes donations in kind such as building materials, cement, iron rods, roofing sheets, sand and stones, nails, paint, wood and furniture," he said.
Dr Vanderpuije observed that although the amount looked colossal, when all stakeholders take their share of the burden, it would become lighter and for the sake of accountability, AMA would publish names of contributors every Friday starting from March 5, 2010 and once a month on how the funds had been utilized.
Currently, there are 120 kindergarten schools, 359 primary schools and 428 Junior High Schools within Accra metropolis to accommodate about 170,000 pupils 10,000 of them being kindergarten pupils.
Available classrooms can accommodate approximately 89,000 pupils at any particular time denying the remaining 71,000 children who represent 44 per cent of the school population their right to education.
Dr Vanderpuije said these impeded academic work and the poor academic performance of the country's future leaders was enough evidence to show that "the shift system must stop and would stop".
He noted that the system when allowed to continue would prevent the country from harvesting all professionals such as the medical doctors, engineers, economists, administrators and experts needed for the future adding "who knows how many of these disappointed children turn to immoral and perverted lifestyle".
Dr Vanderpuije said: "The academic performance of the children is a great concern to the AMA. As we work to provide physical structure for the pupils, we would also work with leadership of Accra Metropolitan Education
Unit to ensure the implementation of staff development programme to equip teachers to perform at excellent levels in the classroom."
Mr. Max Cobbina, Board Chairman of State Insurance Company, comparing Ghana and Malaysia said a major difference between them was that while Ghana spent more on tertiary education, Malaysia did so at the primary level.
He noted that under these circumstances the Ghanaian child was deprived of basic education and short changed for four hours.
Mr. Cobbina said abolition of the shift system was a step in the right direction and should be supported by all well meaning Ghanaians and corporate bodies.