Story; Rahamatu-Lahi Zakaria || Editor in Chief ||
Savelugu Municipal Assembly (Education)
One of the major achievements of the Savelugu Municipal assembly will be in education. Ending 2019 at the studios of Sanutu Zambang, the Municipal Chief Executive of Savelugu, Honourable Hajia Ayishatu talked revealed how passionate is about the future of children in her municipality hence the number of educational projects she is undertaking in her municipality to complement government effort in ensuring that every child is educated in the country.
One of such project is a community library. In collaboration with the British Council and Oxfam, the MCE was able to get her people a library something that Kumbungu cannot boast of. In line with the president and Library Authority year of reading, Savelugu will join the rest of the country to engage people to read. In the Northern region, Savelugu can now boast to be part of the less than ten districts and municipality with a well-functioning library facility in their municipality.
Apart from the library project, in collaboration with the MP of the area, Alhaji Abdul Samed Gunu has also donated dual and mono desks to schools from the basic school to the senior high school to supplement what the schools already have.
The assembly efforts, GNPC and Ghana ports and harbor have also come to their aid to help get water for Pong Tamale senior high school and school for the deaf.
Tolon Municipal Assembly (Education)
Monitoring of schools to see the performance of teachers is going to be one of the priorities of the District Chief Executive of Tolon, Honourable Hajia Balchisu Yakubu in 2020. The DCE of the area believes that it is not just about providing buildings and equipment but also about monitoring to check on teacher’s attendance to school and what they are teaching children.
2020 is going to be the year of monitoring to ensure kids in that area benefit from all the government flagship programs in the area. For this reason, the DCE has decided to activate all departments and institutions at the assembly responsible for supervision and monitoring to ensure adequate teacher contact hours with students.
Still, under the education sector, the assembly was able to absolve a private senior high school in the district that nearly collapses due to the free senior high program implemented the government. The assembly quickly came to the aid of the school to add to the only government senior high school in the area, thus, Tolon senior high school.
In collaboration with GNPC, the assemble provided more accommodation facilities to the school and also institutional toilets to easy both in accommodation and keep a healthy environment.
The assemble also built an additional ten infrastructure for basic schools and junior high in the district to give every school-going child the chance to go to school and be educated.
Quite apart from that, the assemble has also provided accommodation facilities for teachers posted to the district to have a roof on their heads. These gestures that assemble hopes will help teachers stay in the district to teach children and also improve education in that area.
Currently, the government has decentralized scholarships for the MMDCES to award at the assembly level for tertiary last year. So far 59 people in the Tolon district have benefited from the scholarship and the DCE is calling on her people to apply to the assembly to also benefit from this initiative.
Savelugu Municipal Assembly (Sanitation & Health)
To ensure that teachers regular in school, the MCE with her education director has made is part of their routine to go around to school to check if the teacher is punctual to schools and are using the right methods to teach the kids. Through the Second Lady, Hajia Samira Bawumia, schools in her municipality were given the chief examiners reports and past questions to help them write their exams without difficulty.
In tackling sanitation issues especially open defecation, the assembly has innovated creative ways by building a disability-friendly toilet for all to use and this has led the assembly to win 25, 000 pounds for their effort in inclusive development. As apart of their effort to tackle open defecation, 15 communities were picked for a project to and 7 out of the total are now of free due to the project impact and the people willingness to adapt to change, hence the MCE has said they shall not relent on their effort to have an ODF free municipality.
With water, through the Yoo Naa, have brought in the Turks to drill a borehole for the communities in the assemblies. Also, to rid themselves of the Kumbungu water system, the MCE in collaboration with the MP is working to bring water from Kanshegu to Savelugu. But for a lasting water supply system. The assembly is working to get its own water system in Savelugu. building a water system that will help the communities to get a stable water supply.
To improve the health delivery system in the municipality, the assembly has collaborated with the Dutch embassy to provide them with equipment to stalk their health facility. The First Lady, Her Excellency, Rebeca Akufo Addo have also come to their aid by providing them with a chip compound.
The assembly is also putting up other health facilities in the municipality to supplement what they already have; some have been completed and are used while others are still in the process to be completed.
Tolon Municipal Assembly (Sanitation & Health)
Another thing that the DCE has vowed to fight this year is sanitation in her district. Though she has been fighting this since her inception as the DCE, she believes that there is still more to do when it comes to sanitation. All this she believes can be achieved if people will change their attitude towards sanitation.
One of the challenges that come with fighting sanitation in the area is people’s apathy towards getting a toilet in their houses when building. But notwithstanding that, the assembly in partnership with RING, have been able to build fourteen institutional toilets to curb open defecation in the district.
When it comes to health, the assemble is building six CHPS compounds to cater for the needs of the people. Three are completed while the rest is still in construction. The First Lady, Her Excellency, Mrs. Rebeca Akofo Addo has also donated logistics to some of the chip compounds in the district in the hope of improving health delivery for the people.
Water they say is life. The assembly has built four mechanized boreholes for the district and as well as working around to provide a sustainable water supply system for the people.
In agriculture, the assembly is working to encourage more women to participate in the government flagship program like the planting for food and jobs. With support from SAPPI, it is working to open up farm roads for farmers to use so as to make their work easy. Also, the district is a beneficiary of the one district one warehouse program to prevent post-harvest loses.
