By Zakaria Rafique Seinu 
The new curriculum is excellent. Teachers praise it. Education experts applaud it. Parents have high hopes in it. It is a curriculum designed to move Ghana away from chew and pour, and towards critical thinking, practical skills, creativity and problem solving. It is a curriculum meant to prepare our children not just to pass exams, but to survive and succeed in life.
But a painful question remains. How can this excellent curriculum succeed when the classroom itself is failing the child?
Visit T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School, Wa, in the Upper West Region today, and you will see the painful answer with your own eyes. The school is in dire need of furniture, especially for the first year students who have just reported with dreams in their eyes and hope in their hearts.
These are fresh students. Some left their villages in Wa West, Wa East, Nadowli, Jirapa, Lawra, Nandom and other parts of the Upper West for the first time to come to school. Some are the first in their families to ever enter Senior High School. They came with their chop boxes, their mattresses, their school bags, and their big dreams. They came believing that Free SHS would give them a better life.
But what did they meet at T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa? A classroom without enough desks. A classroom where dining tables and benches are used as classroom furniture. A classroom where three students struggle on a bench meant for two, where some students write on their laps, where some stand because there is no place to sit.
This is pitiable. This is painful. This is unacceptable.
1. DINING TABLES AND BENCHES HAVE TAKEN OVER THE CLASSROOMS AT AMASS, WA
At T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, the situation is heartbreaking. Many classrooms, especially those for the first years, do not have proper desks and chairs. Instead, dining tables and benches from the dining hall are carried into the classrooms every morning.
These are tables meant for eating, not for learning. They are long, heavy, uncomfortable, and completely unsuitable for six to eight hours of teaching and learning.
Imagine a first year student, just 15 or 16 years old, sitting on a hard dining bench from 7:30am to 3:30pm in the scorching Wa heat. By 10am, the back is aching. By 12 noon, the legs are numb. By 2pm, the body is completely tired. How can that child concentrate on Mathematics, on Integrated Science, on English?
Some of the benches are broken. Some have nails sticking out, tearing the uniforms of innocent children whose parents struggled to buy them. Some wobble so much that when one student moves, the whole bench shakes, and the books fall down.
Teachers at the school are also suffering. They try to move around the classroom to help students, but there is no space. The dining tables are too long and block the walkways. A teacher cannot reach the student at the back who is struggling, because the furniture is in the way.
This is not the environment for the new curriculum. The new curriculum demands comfort, dignity, and active participation. Dining tables cannot provide that.
2. IT IS DIFFICULT TO USE THE NEW ASSESSMENT MODES WITHOUT FURNITURE
The beauty of the new curriculum is in its assessment. It is not only about final exams. It talks about group work, project work, practicals, presentations, peer learning, and continuous assessment.
But how do you do group work at T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, when students are packed like sardines on dining benches and cannot turn to face each other?
How do you do practical work when there is no proper table to place the apparatus on? How do you do a presentation when a student cannot stand freely because the bench is blocking the way?
How does a teacher conduct individual assessment when three students are sharing one small space and copying from each other becomes unavoidable?
The teachers are trained. They are willing. They are ready. But they are handicapped. They are forced to abandon the practical aspects of the new curriculum and go back to the old method of talking while students just listen, not because they want to, but because the furniture does not allow them to do better.
This means the first year students at T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, are being denied the full benefits of the new curriculum, not because of their fault, not because of their teachers’ fault, but because there is no furniture.
Is this fair to these innocent children?
3. STUDENTS COULD PERFORM POORLY WITHOUT FURNITURE
Let us be honest. A child who is uncomfortable cannot perform well.
At T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, many first year students are already complaining of back pains, poor handwriting, and inability to concentrate. Some have to write while standing. Some have to place their books on their laps and bend their necks for hours. This affects their eyesight, their posture, and their health.
How can we expect these children to compete in WASSCE in three years’ time with students in schools in Accra, Kumasi and Tamale where each child has his or her own desk and chair? How can we expect them to perform well when they are starting their SHS journey on such a painful note?
The risk is clear. If nothing is done now, these first years will perform poorly. Some may lose interest in school. Some may drop out. Some may carry this pain throughout their SHS life.
Free SHS has given them access. But access without furniture is like giving a farmer a farm without a hoe. The intention is good, but the work cannot be done.
We cannot sit down and watch the future of these children be destroyed by something as basic as a desk and a chair.
A CRY TO ALL STAKEHOLDERS: PLEASE COME TO OUR AID
This is a passionate appeal. A pitiable cry from T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, to all stakeholders.
To Government, through the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, and the Free SHS Secretariat, we beg you. Please, do not forget T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa. The first years need desks and chairs urgently. Include the school in the next batch of furniture supply. A child cannot wait for three years to get a desk. The time to act is now.
To the Member of Parliament for Wa Central and the Wa Municipal Assembly, you are the parents of this community. Your children are suffering. Please use your Common Fund, your development fund, and your influence to provide furniture for these first years. One desk from you can save the future of one child.
To the Old Students of T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, the great AMASS family, remember where you started. Many of you sat in these same classrooms in Wa. Many of you are now doctors, teachers, lawyers, nurses, soldiers, and businessmen because someone gave you a place to sit and learn. Today, your younger brothers and sisters are sitting on dining benches. Will you watch them suffer? Please come home and help. Even 10 desks from a year group will make a big difference.
To the Parent Teacher Association, to the School Management Committee, to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission, Wa, to the Wa Naa and the Chiefs and Elders of Wa, this is your school. These are your children. Please do not leave them to suffer alone.
To NGOs, philanthropists, churches, mosques, corporate bodies, and all good-hearted Ghanaians, this is your chance to change a life. A desk costs less than a bag of cement. A chair costs less than a dinner for two. But for a first year student at T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, that desk is their future. That chair is their hope.
Imagine your own child sitting on a broken dining bench for eight hours every day in Wa. Imagine your own child writing on his lap. Would you be happy? If you would not want it for your child, do not let it happen to the children of T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa.
The time to act is now. Not tomorrow. Not next term. Now.
The new curriculum is excellent. The Free SHS policy is excellent. The teachers at T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, are excellent. The students are brilliant and eager to learn. What is missing is just furniture.
Let us all come on deck. Let us provide the desks. Let us provide the chairs. Let us wipe the tears of these first year students and give them a comfortable place to sit, to learn, to dream, and to succeed.
A child who sits well, learns well. A child who learns well, will lead Ghana well tomorrow. Please, help T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS, Wa, today.
Ishmael Junourgh