Prestea SHS headmistress appeals to government for infrastructure expansion

The Headmistress of Prestea Senior High Technical School in the Prestea Huni-Valley District of the Western Region, Madam Kay Oppong Ankomah has made a clarion call on government to expand its infrastructure in order to meet the accommodation needs of the increased students’ population.

According to the headmistress, it has become almost impossible to accommodate fresh students who were admitted under the Free SHS policy due to the sizes of structures in the school.

The Free SHS program was officially launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Tuesday September 12, 2017, to enroll over 400,000 first year students for the 2017/2018 academic year.

The implementation of the controversial free SHS policy has been characterized with some challenges such as inadequate dormitories, dining halls, classrooms and alleged unapproved fees been charged by some heads of the schools from parents since it started.

In view of these, Hon Mozart Kwaku Owuh, DCE for Prestea Huni-Valley District and his team visited schools in the District on September 26, 2017 to assess some of the challenges the schools and students.

At the Prestea Senior High Technical School, the Headmistress, Madam Kay Oppong Ankomah revealed that, due to the population of the first year students, the school had converted two big classrooms into dormitories which have helped in accommodating large number of students.

She appealed to government to build structures for the school as even the school's dining hall is unable to accommodate all the students at a time, a situation that has forced the school to make students eat in batches.

On the part of the government, Hon Mozart Kwaku, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Prestea Huni-Valley commended the headmistress of Prestea Senior High Technical School, Madam Kay Ankomah for been able to manage situation regardless of challenges with the limited facilities at the school and enrolled 200 first year students.

He also assured the school authorities that by the end of the year, the Assembly will embark on infrastructure projects to help accommodate students and to help promote government's agenda of ensuing quality education.