The School That Had Only One Student: And What Happened Next
The spokesperson for Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, Yaw Opoku Mensah, has responded to claims made by blogger “Amaro Shakur Ghana” in a YouTube broadcast titled “See Wickedness: Will Never Complete This – Akufo-Addo & NPP Abandoned Prez Mahama E-Block School E!!”, describing the assertions as misleading and politically charged.
Mr. Yaw Opoku Mensah, speaking on behalf of Hon. Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum, said that the claims made by “Amaro Shakur Ghana” ignore the real story. He emphasized that the school’s history and the steps taken to make it functional are being misrepresented for political reasons.
According to him, the project was originally started under President John Dramani Mahama as a community day school—Drobonso Community Day School, located in the northeastern part of the Ashanti Region without boarding facilities, despite being located more than three kilometers outside the main town in a remote area.
When the school was first opened as a day school, he claims only one student enrolled, a development he argues exposed serious planning and accessibility challenges.
“A day school located in a sparsely populated and hard-to-reach area will naturally struggle,” he explained. “Parents cannot trek long distances daily, and students cannot commute from surrounding villages without reliable transportation. That is not politics; it is common sense,” he added.
So the school was supposed to be operational last year (2025), but the current (NDC) government has refused to operationalize it after all the necessary adjustments, which included the addition of boarding facilities added by the NPP.
Mr. Opoku Mensah stated that the solution was not to abandon the project but to correct what he describes as a structural flaw. Under the leadership of former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the school was completed and converted from its original day-school model into a boarding facility, with dormitory blocks added to improve accessibility and ensure sustainability.
He credited the intervention to the education reforms led by Hon. Dr. Yaw Adutwum, noting that dormitories, furniture, chairs, and other essential learning materials were provided to make the school fully operational.
He added that similar interventions were introduced in Adansi Apagya, Nsawora, and Adugyama, where E-Block schools faced low enrollment and operational difficulties including one named after the late John Evans Atta Mills. According to him, those schools are now operating fully following the upgrades and adjustments.
“The question should not be about partisan pride,” he argued. “It should be about viability. A school that cannot attract students is not a monument; it is a miscalculation. Leadership is not about cutting ribbons it is about making institutions work,” he added.
The rebuttal comes amid renewed political debate over the planning, accessibility, and long-term sustainability of community day schools across the country.
