A busy day at Mafi Anfoe, a farming community in the Central Tongu District of the Volta Region.
The laborious efforts of the workers involved in this building will not be compensated.
They are eager to finish this project so that they can attract teachers to their community and raise the standards of education.
Because of the deprived nature of the community and poor accommodation, many teachers refuse to accept postings to the E.P. Basic School which serves over 400 pupils.
The Chief of Mafi Anfoe, Togbi Dra Aboetaka IV is concerned about the poor state of education in his village.
“Last 2 years or so, the school perform poorly. Very, very poorly and we attribute all these to teachers leaving outside the community. It has affected the teaching and learning of the people,” he said.
Teachers who accept the post to Mafi Anfoe travel long distances to school every day.
“People when they come and they look at the nature of the road; they come Togbe and his elders have to be looking accommodation for them. One week, two weeks, one month, and then they are discouraged. Some of them go and they don’t come back again. So it is affecting the teaching and learning in the community.”
“People have to travel about 15km from Sogakope or about 5km because there’s no accommodation here. They hire room over there and come down to teach here. At times because of the transport problem, they delay in coming.”
To attract more teachers and halt the further decline in the academic performance of the pupils, the youth of the community decided to contribute 10 cedis monthly to buy building materials for a bungalow. Skilled workers in the town, offer their services for free.
Worfa Segbe is excited to be part of this project.
“It is the youth that came together, and then they formed a WhatsApp group, and through that, they said, “If you know you’re from this community, whether you’re here right now or not, you have to contribute something every month. The money they have contributed is what they used to start the project.”
“Actually, we cannot say the government should do everything. If we should say the government should do everything, our children’s performance will still be going down….so the youth decided to come in and start something.”
Lucky Fiawoyefe is a pupil’s teacher at Mafi Anfoe but he is not so lucky. Due to the lack of residential facilities there, he travels several kilometres to school.
Having to embark on this journey daily troubles him and the recent hike in fuel prices has compounded his woes.
On rainy days the roads are rendered unmotorable, so Lucky is unable to make it to school.
“It’s difficult for us simply because we do commute to and from our various communities to come to the school. We are not leaving in the community and therefore most of the time whenever you are coming, the road is unmotorable…Whenever it rains you can’t go through the muddy roads. Sometimes you have to stuck, fall or our dresses become dirty.”
Mr. Fiawoyefe shares how this situation is impacting education at Mafi Anfoe.
“The youth decided that no. The small money they have they should use it to start teachers’ bungalow so that the teachers can stay in the community and teacher their pupils very well. So that in the evening, at least those who will be facing some challenges in learning, we can organize evening classes for them,” Togbi Dra Aboetaka IV explained.
According to the youth, the 4-bedroom facility will go a long way toward enhancing teaching in the school. But they fear the facility may not be ready before the start of the next academic year. They are, however, appealing to philanthropists, non-governmental organizations, and the government to augment their efforts.
“The money they have contributed is not enough. Most of the money or the capital has gone already. The money to complete the project is huge. Even look the building is at the window-level. So we need a lot of money again…” some of the youth insisted.
“They started, though they don’t have a lot of money to complete the project. They have that courage and we also encourage them and I want to use this opportunity to appeal to the District Assembly, MP, Philanthropists, and those NGOs who can come to their aid for the completion of this project. So that our teachers can stay in the community and teach our children for us.”
The chief and people of Mafi-Anfoe are dedicated to raising funds to finish this project to attract educators and safeguard the future of their children.
