Children forced to study at odd places as power crises worsen

Children Studing in front of a bank at night.jpg

Some school children at Kokomlemle in Accra are not allowing the current erratic power supply to wrinkle their desire to get their homework done despite a perfect excuse.

The hard staircase of the SG-SSB Bank on the Faanofa Street in Kokomlemle, adjacent Joy FM, is the new desk and two bulbs outside is their new light.

With notebooks sprawled on the floor, they bury their heads in academic work, ignoring the noise from the cluster of generators a few meters away.

The country’s power crisis is proving challenging for the managers of the state. The situation is worsening by the day, making nonsense of earlier assurances by the President to solve the problem.

“Maybe there is a fault on the power so the repairers should repair it so that it will not be difficult for us”, an 8-year-old girl said.

However, the power crisis seems far from ending as GRIDCo has hinted of intensified load shedding in the coming days due to a generation shortfall of more than 500 megawatts.

The shortfall represents almost a third of the entire 2,000 megawatts needed for distribution.

According to the Volta River Authority (VRA), the power crisis has intensified as a result of low water levels in the Akosombo, Bui and Kpone Dams, coupled with inadequate gas supply from Nigeria and the breakdown of some power generators.

But this will not break the spirit of the kids – one, a wannabe doctor, another, a wannabe nurse, the other is not sure.

It is a spirit we should celebrate in a nation skilled in explaining away problems.

When the two drop their homework on the teacher’s desk this morning, their scores will not take into consideration that period of determination, that moment with mosquitoes.

But surely their inner sense of satisfaction should tell them, ‘good job done’ and a small solid brick of determination would have been well laid in a nation in dire need of plenty of determination.