Pencils of Promise (PoP), an education-focused non-profit Organisation, and the Fidelity Bank Ghana, have commissioned a three-unit classroom block for the Fodome Kordzeto M/A Basic School to ensure quality education. It has an office and ancillary facilities. The two organizations also renovated a pavilion, KVIP, provided a new urinal, repainted an old school block built by Plan International Ghana, and drilled a mechanised borehole for the community and the school. Mr Freeman Gobah, the Country Director, Pencils of Promise, said the model of the building was the second of a kind to be built by the Organisation. He said the PoP had built 600 schools globally and the Fodome Kordzeto block was the 199th in Ghana. Its 200th block for Ghana would be commissioned in January 2024. Mr Gobah said PoP believed that education was not only classroom blocks but teachers, pupils and parents all had to play a role in the ecosystem. He said PoP had invested heavily in training and retraining ofmore than 2,500 teach ers, who in turn impacted more than 53,000 pupils and students in the Volta, Oti and Eastern regions. The Fodome Kordzeto M/A Basic School would also benefit from the PoP's training programmes from February 2024, to be preceded by the supply of educational and digital materials, he said. Mr Gobah called for an effective maintenance culture to ensure the longevity of the classroom blocks and commended all stakeholders for the support. He said he was looking forward to the next partnership to help elevate education and contribute their quota to building thehuman resource capacity of the country. Mr Atta Yeboah Gyan, the Deputy Managing Director, Fidelity Bank Ghana, in an address read on his behalf, said the project formed a key prong of the Bank's Orange Impact initiative. The initiative seeks to provide a medium to long-term suit of support packages to 15 marginalised schools across the country within a five-year period. Mr Gyan said their initial visit to the school painted a clear picture of the need to provide the children with a conducive environment to learn. It was an opportunity to effect real Orange Impact, he said. 'As a bank that is uniquely and proudly Ghanaian, we firmly believe that Ghana would be a better place if everyone had the opportunity and support to succeed,' he added. Mr Gyan advised the pupils to work hard to achieve their aims and urged the teachers, parents, guardians, and members of the Fodome community to support and nurture the dreams of the young generation. Ms Leticia Doe, the Headmistress of the School, said it was established on 25th September, 1973, under a tree, with six volunteer teachers and some community assistants. It now has professional teachers and service personnel. 'For the past four and a half decades the school had gonethrough challenges, which words cannot express,' she said. Ms Doe said in 2014, the Junior High School (JHS) obtained 100 per cent, and 84 per cent from 2015 to 2022 in the Basic Education Certificate Examination. She said the Kindergarte n One, Basic One and Two currently had inadequate trained teachers, while the JHS was using the Roman Catholic Church as classroom, which made it difficult for teaching and learning. She called for assistance to build a JHS block with a library and a computer laboratory for the students and expressed gratitude to the Pencils of Promise and Fidelity Bank Ghana for the assistance. Mr Francis Yaw Agbemadi, Volta Regional Education Director, said the commissioning emphasised the vital link between education and infrastructural development, showcasing the role it played in shaping the destiny of communities. It served as a beacon of progress, providing not only a conducive space for learning but also nurturing the minds of the next generation. He urged all stakeholders, both local and international, to continue to support educational initiatives and positively shape the future of the children. The donors also provided 60 dual desks, teachers and office tables and chairs, ceiling fans in the classrooms and tw o 10,000-litre capacity polytanks to help store water. Awards were given to some hardworking pupils and community members. Source: Ghana News Agency
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