The Valco Trust Fund, a charitable body set up to help in the advancement of education and science for Ghanaian schools, has launched a project that seeks to eliminate schools under trees and renovate ones in deplorable states within a space of 5 years.
The Fund which for the past 50 years has contributed immensely to the development of all sectors of the economy believes 64-year-old Ghana has high repute in the global communities, and the benchmark of the country’s independence should be no more schools under trees if “we want the country to develop.”
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Valco Trust Fund which is unhappy with the current state of the basic educational infrastructure has decided to invest in the sector as it believes access to basic education must be enjoyed by all. Executive Director of the Fund says, “Regardless of all this, there exists a disparity in schools in terms of quality. Basic school teachers have managed schools under trees and those in deplorable structures have also moved to under trees because of the fear in staying in these structures.
Available data provided by Real Estate Times Africa, which is partner to the project, indicates that over 5,000 schools under trees and their locations have been identified across the country.
The school buildings were then categorized according to their varied attention needing states. Three thousand of them according to standard ratings are in a deplorable state, over two thousand others are begging for attention and many left uncompleted.
Valco Trust Fund intends to continue playing a leading role in the country and to complement government’s effort at eradicating poverty through constructing and to eliminate every single school under trees and all old and poor basic school structure in the country. The Fund will construct classroom blocks for the KG, Primary and Junior High Schools.
Shedding more light on the type of school infrastructure to be built by Valco Trust Fund, Kelvin disclosed that JHS blocks will have a six-unit classroom block with modern washrooms attached to the building, furniture, library, canteen, head teacher’s office, storeroom, borehole, blackboard, and a partitioned staff common room with each teacher getting his /her own office.
The primary school block will be a three-unit classroom block with modern washrooms attached to the building, furniture, library, canteen, head teacher’s office, storeroom, borehole, blackboard, and partitioned staff common room with each teacher getting his/her own office
With the KG school block having a two-unit classroom block with modern washrooms attached to the building, canteen, borehole, polytank, partitioned staff common room with each teacher getting his/her own office, playground, furniture.
Kelvin revealed the Ministry of Energy has also partnered with them to make this dream a reality and has promised to supply free electricity to the schools.
“Depending on foreign donors and loans is a scar to us and we can all together develop the country. With our individual contributions, hard work and transparency, we can develop our country and basic school infrastructure,” he made this call to corporate Ghana and private Ghanaians both in the country and the diaspora.
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He charged all to donate towards the ‘Zero Schools Under Trees Project’ through accounts with GCB Bank, CBG, OmniSic Bank and UMB Bank and mobile money transfers on (027 027 7900) AirtelTigo and Vodafone (050 551 8328) registered under the name, Valco Trust Fund.
Partners of this project are the Ministry of Energy, Ghana Education Service (GES), Ministry of Education and the Valco Trust Fund.
