New School Complex for Navrongo

Gaani (U/E), May 11, GNA - The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, has cut the sod for work to begin on a new school for Our Lady of Lourdes Girls Senior High School at Gaani in the Kassena-Nankana East District.

The first phase of the project, which is funded by the GETFund, is valued at 1.4 million Ghana Cedi and would include a dormitory, classrooms and access routes to the various sections of the school.

The Gaani community presented a 280-hectare land to the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Catholic Diocese which is the main owner of the project. The Church decided to convert the school, which is a mixed school, to a girls' school.

The new facilities for the school would include an administration block, a library, 800 capacity dining hall, two senior staff bungalows and four semi-detached staff bungalows all to be completed by September next year.

Mr. Woyongo commended the Chief and people of Gaani for releasing land for the construction of the school and urged the school authority to ensure that the necessary documentations on the land were secured to forestall future litigation.

The Headmistress of the school, the Reverend Sister Martina Naameh, said the school was initially established in 1958 for girls as a middle school to relieve them from travelling long distance to Saint Agnes School in the Upper West Region.

She said the school had metamorphosed from a co-educational institution to a single sex school, a decision taken by the late Bishop of the Diocese, Most Reverend Lucas Abadamloora, to promote girls' education. The Chief of Gaani, Naba John Akayela, thanked the church and government for the project.

He said the community also needed portable water and irrigation dam for dry season farming and to serve as source of drinking water for their animals.