Biriwa Vocational Training Institute cries for assistance

Biriwa, (C/R), April 14, GNA - The Headmistress of the Biriwa Vocational Training Institute, Ms Jackline Appah, has appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to intervene as a matter of urgency to save the school from collapse. According to her, the school, with a population of about 850 students, was facing problems, including lack of funds, equipment, transport and accommodation, a situation that could affect administrative progress and academic excellence of the students. The headmistress made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Biriwa, in the Central Region.

Ms Appah noted that since German Volunteer Service handed over the administration of the school to National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) in 1990s, finance has been a burden of the school. The Headmistress stated that the situation had compelled some of the masters and non-teaching staff to commute from Cape Coast, Anomabo, and Saltpond to the school daily, adding that this impede effective teaching and learning.

She expressed regret that all the three vehicles of the school had broken down, compelling the authorities to hire vehicles for the running of the school. She said the authorities were using the internally generated fund to run the school and pointed out that the funds were woefully inadequate.

According to the Headmistress, the burden was becoming too heavy for the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), who had been giving support to the school, to shoulder, explaining that, they had been paying the salaries of part-time teachers. She, therefore, appealed to the government, non governmental organizations, embassies and corporate bodies to help with the construction of overhead bridge to the girls' dormitory. This, she said, would prevent the girls from crossing the Takoradi-Cape Coast-Accra trunk road to the main campus of the school to attend classes and other school activities. She called on Ghanaians to erase the wrong notion that Vocational and Technical schools were for school dropouts and students with low academic ability. 14 April 09