The Ghana Education Service (GES) has commiserated with the families of eight pupils from the Atikagome Community in the Sene East District of the Bono East Region who lost their lives when a boat they were travelling on to school capsized on the Volta Lake.

GES in a press release said, “the Ghana Education Service commiserates with the families of the eight (8) pupils who met their untimely death while crossing from Atigagorme to attend school at Wayokope in the Sene East in the Bono East Region.”

GES also disclosed fresh information about events leading up to the unfortunate incident.

The GES disclosed that “the eight [pupils] were part of twenty pupils who got stranded at the river bank at Atigagorme while on their way to school” and a benevolent “fisherman on his private boat decided to assist the children by carrying them across.”

“Unfortunately, the boat capsized, and the eight got drowned,” the statement added.

The drownings occurred on Tuesday, January 24.

Education think tank, Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) admonished the Ghana Education Service in the aftermath of the incident to make life jackets available for schools that require students to be ferried to and fro school to avert future occurrences.

GES also pledged to provide the needed support to the bereaved families and stressed that “preparations are ongoing to immediately provide counselling services to the school in this moment of grief.”