Kufuor�s SHS Building Abandoned

EVEN BEFORE government�s vision of building two hundred senior high schools (SHSs) take full flight to boost the nation�s educational system, expansion of infrastructure commenced in line with the implementation of the four-year SHS by the erstwhile John Agyekum Kufuor administration has been left to rot. For the past three years, construction of a 12-unit classroom block and dining hall for the Tanyigbe Senior High School in the Volta region started by the GETFUND to absorb continuing students has ground to a halt. Though school authorities were not emphatic on reasons why the contractors had abandoned the project which is at its foundation stage, they ascribed lack of funds for the stalled project. This has forced the head of the school to collapse two classrooms to be used as dormitories for the boys, while the head is crammed with four teachers in a two semi-detached building. Speaking to the Daily Heritage in an interview, the headmistress of Tanyigbe Senior High School, Agnes Afesi-Afonu, observed that the school has a serious infrastructural deficit and is affecting the quality of education delivery. According to her, the school authorities greeted with joy the two GETFund projects that were expected to provide a 12-classroom block and dining hall but, lamented that the project which commenced in 2011 has now been overtaken by overgrown weeds. Mrs. Afesi-Afonu wondered why the contractor abandoned the project which is at the floor level. She appealed to the government to release funds for the completion of the project claiming that the school now has more students than classrooms which makes teaching strenuous. She lamented that the school does not have a library and most students have been using the excuse of visiting the community library as a leeway to engage in unproductive activities in the town. The visibly worried headmistress observed that the school had converted one of its classrooms into an ICT lab but, unfavourable conditions there are causing the breakdown of the computers. The Tanyigbe Senior High School was established in 1991, some 23 years ago in an old middle school structure. The female students are housed in a 300 bed capacity dormitory block, but the boys lack such facility and are being housed in two of three classrooms. Only four of the 57 teaching and non-teaching staff are housed, but, even the four including the headmistress are crammed in two semi-detached blocks. She appealed to public-spirited individuals and philanthropists to come to the aid of the school which is in dire need. According to her, in spite of challenges bedeviling the institution, they have chalked resounding successes