All basic schools in the Sunyani Municipality, the Bono regional capital are to break from Wednesday, February 26 to Friday, February 28, 2020. This is a directive from the Ghana Education Service. This denotes that pupils and students in both public and private basic schools in the Municipality will not go to school during the said period.
According to the Public Relations Officer of the Sunyani Municipal Education Directorate of the GES, Mrs Ameyaa Kumi Yeboah, the directive has become necessary because of the pre-burial funeral and interment rites of the late Paramount Queen of Sunyani, Nana Yaa Nyamaa Poduo, scheduled from the evening of Tuesday, February 25 to Sunday March 1, this year.
In an interview with GBC’s Radio Ghana in Sunyani, the Municipal PRO of the GES, Ameyaa Kumi Yeaboah said: “a petition was written to the GES by the Sunyani Traditional Council to give school pupils in the Municipality a two day holiday due to the pre-burial funeral and interment rites of the late Paramount Queen Mother of Sunyani, Nana Yaa Nyamaa Poduo scheduled from Tuesday, February 25 to Sunday March 1, this year.”
Madam Ameyaa stressed that investigations have revealed that school attendance is likely to be poor due to the funeral rites of the late Queen Mother.
Mrs. Ameyaa Kumi Yeboah advised parents and guardians to guide the movements of their wards to forestall any eventualities.
The solemn atmosphere of the regional capital, which has its trees and electricity poles draped in red and black ribbons, signifying mourning, has changed the once lively municipality. Sounds of throbbing traditional dirges from local radio stations have filled the airwaves and many residents are in mourning clothes with the city clad with red and black paraphernalia.
According to the arrangements, the body of the late Queen Mother would be laid in state at the ‘Boahen Korkor Fie’ (the palace of the Sunyani paramountcy) at Asufufu, a suburb of Sunyani from Wednesday, February 26 through to Friday, February 28. The late Queen Mother of Sunyani, Nana Yaa Nyamaa Puduo Known in private life as Helena Akosua Yeboaa, was enstooled in 1973 aged 18 just after completing elementary education at the Nyamaa Girls Middle School in Sunyani and reigned for 46 years. She is survived by four children. Nana Yaa Nyamaa passed on aged 64 on Thursday, August 1, 2019, at the Sunyani Regional Hospital of an undisclosed ailment.