The school bells will not ring at Accra Newtown Experimental D/A School, not for now, and not until it is safe.
A devastating building collapse at the institution has claimed three lives, left twenty people seriously injured, and sent shockwaves through the education community, prompting the Ghana Education Service (GES) to issue an immediate directive: students must stay away.
The tragedy, which has cast a dark shadow over the school and its surrounding community, has also reignited urgent questions about the state of school infrastructure across the country, questions that authorities can no longer afford to answer slowly.
On Monday, March 30, 2026, the Director-General of GES, Prof. Ernest Kofi Davis, visited the scene for a briefing with security officials before speaking to Citi News. His message was measured but firm. An emergency meeting, he confirmed, would be convened to determine the path forward. Until the remaining structures can be thoroughly assessed and declared safe, no student will be permitted on the premises.
“We are going to work with the regional and the national team,” Prof. Davis said. “We will work with the estate department to ensure that the other structure is indeed fit for that purpose. If they are not, we will advise the students not to go into such areas.”
The caution is well-founded. With one building already reduced to rubble and lives already lost, the priority now is ensuring that what remains standing does not become the next hazard. GES says it will work closely with its estate department to carry out urgent structural assessments before any decision is made about resuming academic activities.
Beyond the immediate grief and disruption, the collapse at Accra Newtown has exposed a deeper, more troubling reality: the fragile condition of school buildings that thousands of Ghanaian children walk into every day. For many, the tragedy is not just a story about one school. It is a warning about many others.
As the investigations and assessments get underway, families are left mourning, students are left in limbo, and the nation is left confronting an uncomfortable truth: the infrastructure meant to educate Ghana’s children must also be safe enough to protect them.
Source: Apexnewsgh.com