Pupils and teachers of the Wassa Mampong D/A Primary School in the Mpohor District of the Western Region have vacated their classrooms for the past three weeks due to stench emanating from the excrement of bats, which have set up abode in the school for the past three years.
Investigations by Media General reveal the bats invaded Classes 4, 5 and 6 and the head teacher’s office but little attention had been given to the situation over the past three years until some pupils and teachers started having metabolic reactions.
The School’s management and the Parent-Teacher Association, therefore, compelled the head teacher to lock up the three classrooms.
Pupils in Primary 6 are now occupying the same classroom with KG2 pupils while those in Classes 4 and 5 are sharing the same classroom with Primary 2 and 3 pupils.
The head teacher’s office and the staff room have all been relocated to the corridor of the school.
Even there, one cannot breathe easily due to the stench.
The District Chief Executive, Ignatius Asaah Mensah, ordered a fumigation the classrooms and this reduced the population of the bats.
But some were still hiding in the ceiling, Media General gathers.
The community, therefore, removed the roofing sheets and burnt some local herbs, together with palm kernel and detergents to get rid of the rest of the bats and further reduce the stench.
Explaining the situation, the head teacher, Stephen Duah Appiah, said he had no option than to close the classrooms since the needed assistance was not forthcoming.
He also denied that the children had been home for the past three weeks.
But the Assemblyman for Wassa Mpohor, Abraham Yaw Mensah, insists the children had been home for three weeks, adding that proposals for them to use part of a church in the community for classes were ignored.
Some of the affected students sharing their plight, said academic activities are often disrupted by the bats during classes coupled with the bad stench.
They alleged that the situation has caused some teachers and students, who are allergic, to complain of some ailment.
Mpohor DCE Ignatius Asaah Mensah later in an interview disclosed that there are plans to deal with the situation.
In a related development, the District Education Director for Mpohor, Eric Offei, who was not happy about the media presence in the school, rushed to the school to warn the school authorities not to give audience to the media, describing it as an illegal invasion under Ghana Education Service by-laws.
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