In the farming community of Anyima, Ghana, a grim monument to broken promises stands silently. The Community Day Senior High School, initiated in 2016 as part of the E-Blocks project, remains unfinished ten years after construction began. Thousands of wooden desks, hauled to the site by the contractor, are stacked high within the uncompleted classrooms, deteriorating due to neglect.
The E-Blocks project was launched by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government in 2016 to expand access to secondary education in underserved communities. However, after the NDC lost power to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in December 2016, the project stalled, and contractors abandoned sites. In Anyima, the project simply stopped, leaving the building a shell, roofless in parts, with walls stained by years of rain, and classrooms filled with rotting furniture.
The Bono East Regional Minister, Francis Owusu Antwi, recently inspected the project and expressed frustration at the state of the desks. "This is purely a case of causing financial loss to the state," he said, standing among the decaying desks. The Minister noted that the desks could have bridged the infrastructure gap in the region's schools if they had been distributed when it became clear the project would not be completed on time.
Minister Owusu Antwi announced that his office would formally write to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to seek approval to relocate the desks to schools where they are urgently needed. He stated that they will move these desks to other areas where they are needed, once they get the green light. The minister also expressed optimism that the long-abandoned school may finally be completed, as a contractor has returned to the site.
For residents of Ampoma and surrounding communities, the situation is a bitter pill to swallow. They have watched for a decade as politicians came and went, each with promises of completion. Kwabena Adjei, a resident, said, "This school was supposed to change our lives. Our children would not have to travel far to go to school. But ten years later, we are still waiting. We are tired of promises."
The Anyima E-Block is one of dozens of similar projects scattered across Ghana, abandoned or stalled due to political transitions, funding challenges, and contractual disputes. Critics argue that the politicisation of educational infrastructure has robbed thousands of Ghanaian children of access to quality secondary education. They point to the lack of continuity in government projects and the failure to prioritise the needs of ordinary citizens over partisan interests.
As the contractor returns to the site and the minister pushes for the relocation of the rotting furniture, the people of Anyima can only hope that this time, the promises will be kept. The unfinished school and rotting desks serve as a haunting symbol of what could have been and a stark reminder of the cost of neglect. The community waits with bated breath for the completion of the school and improved access to education for its children.
Key points
- Thousands of wooden desks are deteriorating in an unfinished school in Ghana's Bono East Region.
- The school project stalled after a change in government in 2016.
- The government plans to relocate the desks to schools where they are urgently needed.
