The senior presidential advisor, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, has raised concerns about the durability of materials used in the construction of schools, questioning why many school buildings, particularly those in rural areas, struggle to withstand adverse weather conditions.
Osafo-Maafo explained that during severe storms, such as those experienced during heavy rainfall in the country, houses in these areas often manage to keep their roofs intact, whereas school buildings frequently lose their roofing.
He however argued that the ability of these houses to retain their roofs might be due to the quality of the roofing materials and the workforce used in their construction.
Speaking at the International Educators Summit 2024 on the theme, “Reimagining Education for the Future We Seek: Africa and the World in Dialogue” Yaw Osafo Maafo expressed frustration about this issue and urged the Ministry of Education to ensure this issue is resolved.
“Anytime we have serious storm in a village, you see all the village mud houses standing. The school buildings and the church buildings the roofing goes off. You have been reading the papers, am I lying? But the ordinary houses of the ordinary people in this village keep standing. The roofs are on. Is it not the quality of the roofing? There must be. Why should the school roofing go off and leave buildings in the same place having their roofs on and the school building would have been built even much later, the older houses are much older than the school buildings but their roofs stuck.
“People have carefully and taken time to do it right. So workmanship is a problem in our country when it comes to public buildings. Mr. Minister for Education, I hate hearing school building rifting off after rain when other buildings are standing and these are the things we should be doing with respect to workmanship of our school and public buildings”.
