Editorial: Bridge The Divide Before Children Pay The Price

The disturbing story published by The Chronicle on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 under the headline: “Perilous Journey To Knowledge …How Pupils In Western North Suffer To Access Education” must not be treated as another routine rural hardship story that disappears from public discussion after a few days of outrage. In our opinion, it is a national emergency that exposes the continuing inequality between urban and rural Ghana in access to education, transportation and basic state protection.

In Achiase, Ankasse, Apromase Mission and Plot So, in the Western North Region, schoolchildren are compelled to cross the swollen River Bia in a canoe before they can access education at Antwi Agyeikrom in the Ahafo Region. Some of these children are in Kindergarten and lower primary school. During the rainy season the river overflows, turning what should be a normal journey to school into a daily gamble with death.

The facts presented in our story are heartbreaking. Children reportedly wade through water, reaching chest or chin level, before boarding a canoe that carries only six people at a time, including the paddler. During flooding, a single crossing may take more than fifteen minutes. At times, pupils remain out of school for weeks or even months, because the river becomes impassable.

The Chronicle finds this development horrible and deeply disturbing. This is not merely an inconvenience; it is a direct threat to the lives of innocent schoolchildren and a violation of their constitutional right to education.

We believe the 1992 Constitution is unambiguous on this matter. Article 25 guarantees equal educational opportunities for all citizens, and mandates the state to make basic education accessible to every child. Article 38 further directs the state to provide educational facilities across all regions of the country. When children must risk drowning simply to sit in a classroom, the state is failing in that constitutional obligation.

What makes the situation even more troubling is that this problem is not new. According to residents, the challenge has persisted for more than sixteen years. Sixteen years is enough time for children to be born, grow and complete Senior High School. Yet successive administrations have apparently allowed these communities to remain trapped in neglect and isolation.

The danger goes beyond education alone. Pregnant women, sick persons, farmers and traders all depend on the same dangerous crossing. Cocoa farmers reportedly carry bags of cocoa beans across the river manually, because there is no bridge. During heavy rains, entire communities become cut off from one another. Economic activity slows, access to healthcare becomes difficult and families are isolated.

The account by the Queenmother of Antwi Agyeikrom of a resident drowning while attempting to cross the river should have been enough warning to authorities that the situation cannot continue indefinitely. Sadly, it often appears that national attention is only mobilised after tragedy strikes schoolchildren.

The Chronicle believes Ghana cannot continue to speak about inclusive development, rural transformation and equal opportunity while children in parts of the country still struggle under such primitive and dangerous conditions merely to obtain basic education.

It is important to emphasise that the affected residents are not demanding luxury. They are asking for a bridge, a basic piece of infrastructure that would preserve lives, improve school attendance, support cocoa transportation and connect isolated communities to economic opportunity.

Government must, therefore, treat this issue with urgency. The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ministry of Roads and Highways, the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and the district authorities in the affected areas must collaborate immediately to provide a permanent solution. At the very least, emergency safety interventions, including life jackets and safer transport arrangements, should be introduced pending the construction of a bridge.

As the rainy season intensifies, the danger will only worsen. If urgent action is not taken, many children may abandon school altogether while farmers continue to suffer losses transporting produce across the river. No Ghanaian child should have to choose between education and survival. The state must act now before River Bia claims another life.

 

 

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