Most first year Senior High School(SHS) students have consistently declined enrollment in several of the Community Senior High Schools constructed by the erstwhile Mahama administration due to the fact that they are inaccessibe, the Ministry of Education has revealed.
According to the Ministry in order to remedy the situation, contracts have been awarded for the construction of boarding houses to be attached to these schools which were constructed before the 2016 general elections to prevent them from remaining white elephants.
The Ministry’s comment is in response to the accusation by ex-President John Mahama that the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) government has abandoned the Community Day Schools project he bequeathed it.
Maham recently expressed worry over what he says is government’s failure to continue the projects – citing the Community Day School in the Central Gonja District as one of the many abandoned across the country.
Mahama said he was disappointed the projects, which could transform education in the country were being left to rot under the Akufo-Addo administration.
“In my round touring communities across the country, I have drawn attention to the criminal abandonment of projects and this is one very good example. This is an almost complete project of Secondary School and Community Day School…you can even see fire extinguishers installed and ready to go…this is one of the 23 World Bank-funded projects,” he told journalists on a tour.
“If you go across the country you will find them at different stages of completion… some are almost completed yet they remain unoccupied. If you look at the children in that community and its surrounding communities they have to travel several kilometers to go get secondary education when a secondary school is at their doorstep,” he said
But responding to Mr Mahama’s claims, the Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Ekow Vincent told Kasapa News that the Mahama administration has caused financial loss to the state with where it sited the schools.
“The roads leading to the schools are not motorable, Ex President Mahama on his visit himself had to park his car far away and walk to go and inspect the school project. Contracts have been awarded for boarding houses to be attached to the schools to keep the students in there. The students don’t choose these schools because they can’t easily access them. They’ve demonstrated that by not choosing those schools. So a school like Drobonso you don’t get students to even choose that school. Even when placed on self-placement you dom’t get people choosing those schools. What does it tell you? So what is John Mahama talking about.?
“Go and check a school at Adaklu, Aboade Community Senior High School this was a school that was comppleted before the 2018. Again no student choose that school, John Mahama should know that no student chooose that school.”
