Burglars invade TAMASCO as teachers, students become easy targets

Authorities at the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) in the Northern Region are crying for help to protect students and staff who have become easy targets for burglars in the metropolis.

The students and staff on campus have, the authorities say, have been suffering from the hands of thieves and intruders who frequently break into their dormitories and bungalows to steal various items including cooked food.

One of the school’s boys’ dormitories was Thursday morning found to have been broken by thieves who turned the whole room upside down.

The thieves broke the two locks to the room and ransacked the entire place. Trunks and chop boxes of students who are currently home due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, were also broken into and the items scattered all over.The school authorities discovered the incident when a team from Zoomlion Ghana Limited arrived at school Thursday morning to fumigate and disinfect the school against bed bug infestation and covid-19.

The exercise forms part of the ongoing nationwide fumigation and disinfection of senior high and technical schools as well as special schools by the Ghana Education Service and the waste management giant, Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

Currently schools within the Northern and North East regions are being fumigated and disinfected. These include TAMASCO, Ghana Senior High School (Ghanasco), Business Senior High School (BISCO), Buipe SHS, Nalerigu SHS and Buipe Vocational Technical School.

Assistant headmaster of the school in charge of Administration, Baba Abdulai, told journalists intrusion and burglaries at the school has become “a very big challenge”ock

“In fact I can’t count the number of staff whose items have been stolen. There is a particular staff whose items were stolen; even the food that he cooked to eat [which he left] and went to church was carried away,” he revealed.

He said these criminals usually burgle the dormitories and staff bungalows at a time that the students and teachers are in their classrooms for academic work.

“Outsiders come in; criminals come into the school and then destroy school property. Just this morning we one of our dormitories was forced opened and student’s items were taken away,” Mr Abdulai stated.

He explained lack of wall and inadequate security personnel to protect the school campus has made it easy for the criminals to carry out their attacks easily.

He said the school campus has become a thoroughfare for the people in the area, noting they crisscross the campus anyhow even during school hours.

“And then intruders, people riding motorcycles and driving through the school during classes hours. It’s a major challenge to the school. People passing with motorcycles; in a day like this you come to the school it’s just like in the town, like market,” he said.

Although Mr Abdulai said they school started to construct a wall around the school, it has not been able to finish due to how big the campus is and the amount of money required in completing the project.

Responding to the issues, the Northern Regional GES PRO, Donald Kanzoni Awaala who was monitoring the fumigation and disinfection exercise, said they make a case for more security personnel to be employed for the school when there is recruitment.

Meanwhile, the Assistant headmaster has lauded the fumigation exercise which he said would go a long way to protect the students and give them a peace of mind when they return to school.

He commended the Zoomlion Ghana Limited and the GES and appealed to government to periodically undertake such massive fumigation exercise to ensure that the blood sucking insects which have become a major problem in schools across the country are eliminated.