Oti Boateng SHS students compete with birds for space as they dine under trees

Boarding students of Oti Boateng Senior High School in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital are still struggling to get a convenient place to dine after their old wooden structure dining hall was demolished years ago for construction of a multipurpose dining hall project.

The project has sadly been abandoned at the foundation stage by Nesstra Ghana Limited, the construction firm for nonpayment compelling over 600 boarding Students to dine under trees in turns.

Dinning is disrupted whenever it rains. The onset of the rainy season forecasts a worsened disruptive and miserable dining experience for boarding students in the school.

Starr News Eastern Regional Correspondent Kojo Ansah observed during a disguised visit to the school Friday, June 4, 2021, at about 5:00 pm that, students had no dining chairs, therefore, stand to eat.

The risk of birds on the trees flying over their heads and pooing into meals amidst shrieking sounds is discomforting to many of the students hence take away meals served to their dormitories and classrooms as well as the corridors to eat.

The situation is breeding bedbugs, cockroaches and other insects in the dormitories.

Meals are prepared in a makeshift kitchen constructed on the football field of the school after they were displaced by the construction of the dining hall. Oti Boateng SHS formerly Koforidua Senior High School (KOSSEC), was established 29 years ago.

The school has been upgraded to a grade “A” status due to its academic feat. However, the school is faced with infrastructural challenges owing to an exponential increase in students’ population due to the implementation of the Free Senior High school policy.

Completion of a storey classroom project by a different contractor has however partly ameliorated the congestion in classrooms.

The Old Students Association of the School is unhappy about the situation in the school calling on the government to ensure that the contractor returns to the site to complete the project stating that it should be an emergency due to the pending raining season.

Michael Akrofi who spoke on behalf of the old Students also expressed disappointment in Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Council for not lobbying and adding his voice to the plight of the school he renamed after himself.

“I wish you were here in the morning to see what was going on here. In fact, it was very terrible to see students dining in the rains. They carried their breakfast to the dormitory. some also dined in the corridor and classrooms which is not the best. They dine under the mercy of the weather. It is raining too. The birds here even sometimes drop faeces into the meals of the students which is not the best. So, we are pleading to the government to come to our aid and assist us”