The North East Region is leading when it comes to schools that lack desks in Ghana, the Education Policy Research and Advocacy Organisation Africa Education Watch (EDUWATCH) has disclosed in its recent report.

According to EDUWATCH, the desk situation is worse at the primary level in the most underserved regions in the education sector including “Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, Bono East and Oti.” 

While all “the seven (7) regions have the percentage of public primary school pupils lacking desks higher than the national average (40%), the North East Region leads with a maximum of 80 per cent of primary school pupils lacking desks followed by the Northern Region (70%) with Upper East, Bono East and Savanna regions all recording 60 per cent,” EDUWATCH revealed.

“The Northern Region leads with 213,252 public primary school pupils without desks followed by Upper East (118,340) and Bono East (86,074),” in terms of actual figures. 

EDUWATCH’s research revealed that “638,008 (61%) public primary school pupils in the seven (7) underserved regions in Ghana’s education sector do not have desks.

“The lack of desks affects pupils’ learning, handwriting and health, as they adopt uncomfortable postures to write when classes are in session."

Also, “about 24% of pupils in sampled schools within the Nkwanta South Municipality sat on stones to write on their laps, while others (25%) lay on the floor in selected schools in the Zabzugu District.1.”