Parliament request names of contractors working on abandoned GETFUND projects

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Education have called on heads of Senor High Schools (SHSs) to provide the committee with names of construction firms executing abandoned projects in Senior High Schools (SHSs) across the country.

The committee said it is unhappy over levels of work on many on-going and abandoned physical education infrastructure projects in SHSs being funded by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND).

It said it is determined to address the deficit in educational infrastructure in SHSs, as government seeks to improve on educational infrastructure to facilitate smooth running of the free SHS programme.

Mr William Agyapong Quaittoo, the Chairman of the Committee, made the request when the committee visited some SHSs in the Ahafo Senior High and Technical School and Ola Girls SHS at Kenyasi in the Ahafo Region on Tuesday.

Twelve of the 20-member committee is on a three-day working visit to assess the impact and challenges confronting the implementation of the free SHSs in public SHSs in Bono, Bono East and Ahafo regions.

Mr Quiattoo said inadequate physical infrastructure remains a key challenge confronting the free SHS programme, hence the need to sit down with the contractors and devise strategies to complete these government projects.

Many of the abandoned projects were about 70 per cent complete when the committees inspected them at the schools.

Meanwhile, Mr Gabriel Ofori-Mensah, the Headmaster of the Techiman Senior High School (SHS) has appealed to the committee to facilitate the employment of non-teaching staff for the school.

He said the school has a student population of 2,200 but had only three pantry workers and needed about 10 more, additional cooks, security and cleaners.

Mr Ofori-Mensah told the committee that many of the non-teaching staff had gone on retirement and ought to be replaced.

He appealed for the completion of the assembly hall complex, dining hall, boys and girls dormitories being put up by the GETFUND.

Mr Ofori-Mensah said the school needed additional 1,400 beds for the boarding students and more classroom blocks and 250 tables and 500 benches to furnish the dining hall.