In this day and in a country that thumps its chest as a middle income country, it is amazing to still find schools with barefooted children, mud house classrooms and slates as books.
This is the plight of a local Islamic school near Bawku in the Upper East region.The small village; Sakpar, about 25 minutes of bicycle ride from Bawku, known for its high level of Quranic education.
The school which in its decades of existence is yet to have a feel of secular education, as it is solely focused on Islamic style education.
Despite the fact that the school has barely survived in a place where Quranic teaching is standard, a revolution for secular education seem to have been sparked—the people are yearning for secular education.
Propelling this revolution is a group of young dedicated teachers who operate under the name Agents of Change. These young teachers believe secular education is the way to go if the school is to have a fresh breath of life. They want to break the old tradition of impacting just Islamic knowledge.
They believe the intelligence of the little boys and girls, some from neighbouring countries, can be properly developed, if proper infrastructure is provided.
Almost all pupils in the school are bare-footed. They have no chairs and tables to sit and write on . Some sit on the floor while others lean against walls to take lessons.
Their major learning material is the wooden slate and a local ink which is used to write on the slate. For more than five decades children have been taught in this school in that manner.
They sleep in poorly made mud houses after the day’s lessons and wait for the next day to come with its own challenges.
At the local Islamic school, everything is free. Students are not being charged for their education.
Little Dawud is one of the struggling students in the school. Dawud has covered 102 out of the 114 chapters of the holy Quran.
His dream is to become a scholar.
” I thank you so much for coming to our school. May Allah bless you for trying to get the public to help us with a school building and learning materials. I want to become a learned person so that I can take over the school in future”, the lad said when he spoke to this reporter.
Directors and teachers at the school wish the situation could change for the sake of the children’s future.
One of the Directors, Alhaji Mukhtar says, it is their dream to bring change to the only legacy their fathers left but they cannot afford to buy even reading materials.
“We were born in this situation and we have continued to manage the school in this condition. We will appreciate great any support to build classrooms. We will also be happy if secular education is introduced here”, he said in measured tones indicative of his sadness at the situation.
Another teacher, Mallam Ibrahim also re-emphasized the need for the introduction of secular kind of education and the building of classrooms for 
the students.
“We only need help to upgrade the standard of education. Many schools are getting support but we have never received any support yet. The school is one of the best in Bawku.”
Until help comes to these people, their dreams could be very hard to attain. At least, if this remains their learning environment.
Praise is to Allah for the awareness, the motivation of this article. May Allah continue to bless you in the use of the pen and in other activities.