Over 600 Boarding Students of Oti Boateng Senior High School in Koforidua the Eastern regional capital are compelled to have their dining in the open due to the lack of a dining hall.
The old deplorable wooden dining hall facility in the school was pulled down for construction of a modern dining hall however the contractor has abandoned the site for almost a year.
The school, however, has no other facility to convert into a temporal dining hall for the students forcing them to have their dining in the open even under harsh weather conditions.
Due to inadequate dining tables and chairs, students go to dining in groups and in turns in the open.
Students who get late to dining are forced to pick their meals away allowing some to sneak food into their dormitories and classrooms to eat breeding cockroaches and other insects
Some students lamented off-camera that the discomforting situation is having an effect on their academic work because they spend some teaching hours eating in turns.
Apart from this, whenever it rains, dining is obstructed leaving students hungry.
Oti Boateng SHS established 29 years has been facing challenges of infrastructure. Enrollment at the grade “A” school keeps increasing owing to the implementation of Free SHS policy putting pressure on the limited infrastructure.
A classroom and dining hall project that started in the last two years is yet to be completed.
The Headmaster of the school John Hawkson Arthur said declined comment on the situation.
The New Juaben Municipal Education Directorate also refused to speak on the matter.
Information gathered indicates that the contractors have not been paid.
Source: Kasapafmonline.com/102.5FM/Kojo Ansah