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No more community SHSs in Bongo – DCE declares

The District Chief Executive [DCE] for Bongo in the Upper East Region of Ghana, Mr Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga has instructed the district directorate of the Ghana Education Service [GES], to prohibit any further establishment of community Senior High Schools in the district.

Date Created : 3/25/2019 2:39:55 AM : Story Author : Peter Atogewe Wedam/Ghanadistricts.com

Speaking to school authorities during a working visit to the Azeem-Namoo Community Senior High-Technical School [SHTS] last week, the DCE reiterated his directive given earlier to education authorities in the area stressing that, he did not expect to see any such schools spring up. The visit was to enable him see for himself, how the students and authorities were coping with academic and to also assess, and the progress of work on various ongoing projects on the campus.

Explaining his reason for the directive, Hon. Ayinbisa noted that the rampant setting up of such schools only brings undue pressure on the Assembly’s limited resources as there was no way the communities alone could shoulder the huge responsibility of administering such schools in the long run. He observed that, it was better to have few SHSs with quality tuition and output than to allow for an unregulated opening of community second cycle schools which will merely exist to add to the numbers. He remarked, “Bongo district is only about 30 years old and has as many as eight senior high schools; all of them, looking up to the Assembly for various forms of assistance and that is not the best way to go”.

Hon. Ayinbisa however made an urgent call on government and the country’s educational authorities, to do everything possible to absorb the Azeem-Namoo SHTS into the main stream second cycle school system. He noted that the huge amount of money government had already invested in the school even made it more imperative to push through with the necessary procedures that will lead to the mainstreaming of the school. He stressed that, any truncation of the efforts made so far, would mean stakeholders have wasted the nation’s resources on the venture while it would also jeopardize the future of students in the Namoo area and the Bongo District at large.

The DCE said though he had heard and read a lot about the school, he was surprised by the type of infrastructure on the campus and wondered why upon all of these, education sector stakeholders had not yet done the needful, by absorbing the school. He observed that, the school’s facilities ranging from an over 15-unit classroom block, a girls’ dormitory, an ongoing E-Block complex including an administration block and additional classroom projects ongoing among others, placed the school in great position for absorption. The school’s perimetre is also walled to prevent encroachers from trespassing.

He disclosed that he had requested and received a comprehensive report from the Acting Headmaster of the school as well as an application which he pledged to forward to the sector ministry through the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council for appropriate and urgent action to be taken regarding the absorption and other pertinent issues that require immediate attention.

The DCE’s inspection also brought to light, the lack of proper toilet facilities on the campus and thus, promised to hold discussions with UNICEF and Water Aid Ghana to immediately move in to help in this direction. He added that in this day and age where the government and other vital stakeholders were increasing efforts to end open defecation in the country, it was unacceptable for the students and authorities to defecate in the open. He however, commended the interim administration and volunteer-teachers the school for giving off their best in the face of daunting challenges.

Acting Headmaster of Azeem-Namoo SHTS Mr. George Atubiga, in his brief to the DCE and his team, revealed that the total student population stood at 202 while the last batch of new entrants numbering 30, reported in October, 2018. The school has an all-volunteer teaching staff of 23 who take the students through their course of study in two programme areas; General Arts and Business.

Mr. Atubiga said his school could admit up to 1000 fresh students at the start of the academic year if the numbers were available and that, they plan to introduce new programmes should they receive enough students to go round.

In a related development, Hon. Ayinbisa also took delivery of 115 dual desks from the Namoosi Su-Nyeliga association and presented same to the GES for distribution to some seven basic schools in and around the Namoo area. The beneficiary schools included Ayopia primary, Amanga primary, Feo primary, Kansoe primary and Sambologo primary among others.

The presentation was made possible through the personal contributions of members of the Namoosi Su-Nyeliga association who are mainly development-oriented persons that deliberate and source funds from within and without to better the lot of their sister communities and as well, help improve educational standards in the area.

The DCE commended the association for the gesture and that such communal spirit should be kept alive among the citizenry at all times so that when government falls short in an area of development, the good citizens step in to complement. He charged authorities of the beneficiary schools to take good care of the furniture dontated.