From Edmond Gyebi
The government is putting up a magnificent community Information Communication Technology (ICT) Centre for the people of the Sagnarigu.
The over GH¢400,000 project, located in the Sagnarigu District is expected to be completed by the end of this year, and is aimed at enhancing ICT learning and research work among teachers and students in the area. The Community ICT Centre, which is being financed by the Ministry of Communication, will be connected to the National Fiber Optic Backbone.
At a ceremony to cut the sod for the official commencement of the ICT centre, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Alhassan Mohammed Soro-Gudow, commended the government for prioritising the promotion of quality education and infrastructural development in the district.
He was positive that the ICT centre will inure to the benefit of the people, especially, school children, as ICT has become the driving force of human endeavour. The DCE urged the contractor to execute the work according to the design specification, and also complete it on time.
Mr. Soro-Gudow, who has been campaigning against the poor standard of education in the district, which borders on the development of the human resource base of the area, insisted that schools in the Sagnarigu District, at the moment, have no reason to trail behind any district in the Northern Region.
According to him, the ruling government had provided several school blocks and other educational materials aimed at enhancing the quality of education in the district.
Recently, the Sagnarigu District Assembly handed over No. 6 six-unit classroom blocks to some selected schools in the district, with offices, stores, furniture, and toilet facilities, as part of efforts at improving the quality of education in the area. Most of the schools which had their roofs ripped off by the recent rainstorms have also received attention from the assembly.
A three-unit classroom block for the early childhood development of Kindergarten pupils has also been constructed at Kpene in the Sagnarigu District. That notwithstanding, the Assembly has succeeded in attracting more qualified teachers to the district, and has provided most of them with decent accommodation.
Mr. Soro-Gudow noted that even though it is estimated that about 404 schools in the Northern Region have no teachers at all, representing a shortage of 7, 567 teachers, the Sagnarigu District and Tamale metropolis alone have excess teachers of about 1,197.
The DCE, therefore, attributed the cause of the poor performance of the schools in the district to the fact that most teachers in the area report to school very late, and leave at their own convenient time, and yet, they are made to go scot free by their school authorities.
He reminded the teachers that the Sagnarigu District was not a dumping ground for lazy and irresponsible teachers. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Sagnarigu, Alhaji A.B.A. Fuseini, said that the creation of the Sagnarigu District was an attempt by the government to scale up the development aspirations of the people.
He mentioned some of the numerous development interventions the government had brought to the people to include roads, electricity, water, and sanitation facilities among others.