Mr Thomas Benarkuu, the Project Director of MIHOSO International Foundation, has called for establishment of basic schools in fishing communities dotted around the Volta Lake in the Bono East Region.
MIHOSO is a non-governmental organisation working to promote education and health in the fishing communities and implementing interventions to control child trafficking in the area.
Mr Benarkuu made the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in connection with the death of the eight children who drowned, when crossing the Volta Lake to school Monday.
The deceased were among a number of school children numbering 20, who were in a canoe crossing the lake from Atigagome, a fishing community to the Wayokope District Assembly Primary School, when the canoe capsized.
But, the Sene East District Police command says it has begun investigations to ascertain the cause of the accident.
Mr Benarkuu regretted that because of the lack of access, many school-going age children in the communities around the lake were not going to school, because it was difficult for them to cross the lake.
“There are no teachers in the few communities which had schools in the area,” he indicated, saying the government ought to intervene, in ensuring that every Ghanaian child equally access quality education.
He said the inclusive education policy placed enormous task on the government to provide adequate budgetary allocation and create room for every school-going age in the country was not denied formal education.
“These innocent school children just died because they attempted to cross the lake for school. This calamity would have been avoided if there are local schools in the fishing communities,” Mr Benarkuu stated.
He said cases of child exploitation and trafficking remained common in the area because of the lack of schools to admit the children.
Mr Benarkuu added that assistive devices and braille materials ought to be made available to learners with special educational needs in the fishing communities as well.
