We have more than enough to convert toilets into dormitories- GHANASCO headmaster rubbishes report

Correspondence from Northern Region

The Head Teacher of Ghana Senior High School (Ghanasco) in Tamale has rubbished reports that the school has converted a toilet facility into a residential block for students.

Mr. Douglas Haruna Yakubu described such reports as complete fabrication and total falsehood, explaining that the abandoned toilet facility was only used voluntarily by some final-year students for their regular studies.

Last week, a video report of how the management of Ghanasco allegedly converted an old toilet facility into a dormitory went viral on both mainstream and social media.

This has compelled the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ask the Headmaster and Senior House Master of the school to step aside while an investigation is conducted into the matter.

However breaking his silence on the matter, Mr. Haruna Yakubu told the media in Tamale that the over 40-year-old abandoned toilet structure was not converted into a residential block for students.

Instead, he noted that it was some final-year students who use the facility for their private studies, a practice he insisted has happened for more than three decades.

He explained that “These buildings which were constructed by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in the 60s have some attachments, toilet facilities in the buildings but I tell you, right from the late 70s, these toilet facilities have not been used as toilets, myself I’m an old boy and I left here 1983, the same place that he took these pictures, I was sitting there learning.”

Mr. Haruna Yakubu added that “Candidates usually like isolated places, so sometimes, they carry their mattresses and go and learn there, you can’t come and dramatize these things in our school and come and say that we have converted a toilet facility [Into a dormitory]. Did I ever tell you that I converted a toilet facility into a dormitory? It’s not possible”.

The Headmaster said the school had more than enough accommodation and classroom facilities to even admit more day students into the boarding house.

“In this school, we are running the transitional track system where some students are home, others are in school and the purpose of this is to ensure that we have accommodation in both boarding house and then the classroom. So we have enough [accommodation space], so as we sit, we can even admit more day students into our boarding house. How can we convert toilet facilities into dormitories? We have more than enough” he emphasized.