First year students of Akro Senior High Technical School in the Lower Manya Municipality in the Eastern Region have been ‘competing’ with snakes and ‘scorpions’ for space to study in a 98- year-old dilapidated classroom structure.
The students had killed two snakes and uncountable number of scorpions, while some of the snakes according to the teachers managed their way to escape from the class.
The dilapidated mud- structure erected in 1934 with no major rehabilitation had parts of its roof ripped off, and lessons had to close for the form one class sessions anytime the clouds gather.
Though the past and present government had built some structures to augment the existing ones, they are not enough to accommodate the more than 2,500 student.
This was discovered by the Ghanaian Times when Mr Robert TetteyFioAdjase, Head of Assets at the Jubilee House and an old student of the 1991 year group of the school made an undisclosed cash donation to the school cadet, as part of his contribution towards the development of his alma mater.
MrTetteyFioAdjase who toured the classrooms expressed disappointment about the condition in which the students study, and called for a fair share of the national cake to the school.
He reiterated “I’m disappointed when I got to the school because these were the same structures which we sat in to study. This building was here since 1934 at the time the school was called Akro Boys. I see my former school is lacking infrastructure development and we are way behind other schools.”
Finding solution to the situation, he indicated, went beyond the strength of old students because there was so much work to be given though he was committed to do his part.
He disclosed that the headmaster who was going for an official assignment, had to call a sister school for them to release their vehicle to come and pick him, because the school did not have a pick-up to be used for such errands and the mini school bus had also broken down.
“From the facial expressions of my dear students, I can imagine how disappointed they are for choosing a school that lacks a number of facilities whiles their JHS mates are enjoying these facilities in other schools,” he observed.
The Assistant Headmaster in-charge of Administration MrBismarkAhiakwa,said an additional 18-Units classroom infrastructure would be enough to curtail the menace for a good teaching and learning environment, adding that some parents first year students withdrew their wards to different schools when they sighted the dilapidated nature of the school structures.
He appealed for a school bus to make both students and teachers movement from out the schools for excursions and other curricula activities.
The Head Girls Prefect, Susana Doku, said the school did not have a dinning and assembly hall for social events, and that they had been using an uncompleted 1,000 capacity assembly hall which had come to a standstill since 2017, as place for church service, examinations hall, social gathering and a dining hall.
She said due to the lack of space, the first years had to eat first before the second and third years proceed to have their dinning within the stipulated break time.
FROM KODJO DAVID, ODUMASE KROBO
