Provide facilities for school - Head master

Nkran-Nkwanta (B/A), Sept 19, GNA - The Headmaster of Nkran-Nkwanta Secondary/Technical School in the Dormaa District, Mr. William Bekoe, has appealed through the Dormaa District Assembly to the ministry of Education and Sports to provide the school with basic operational requirements to save it from collapse.

Making the appeal during an open forum at a durbar of chiefs and the Nkran-Nkwanta Area Council to welcome the new Dormaa District Chief Executive (DCE) Squadron-Leader Benjamin Anane Asamoah at Nkran-Nkwanta, the Headmaster stressed that the school which was been established in 1993 to serve the town and its outlying villages could not meet its targets due to the continued absence of basic facilities. He enumerated lack of staff and hostel as two major problems confronting the school.

Mr. Bekoe explained that the school with a student population of over 400 could not boast of a single masters' bungalow, adding that, he has been living in a rented room ever since he assumed duty as the head of the school in 1998.

According to Mr. Bekoe the school was compelled to convert some of its classrooms into hostels to provide temporary accommodation for the female students.

He said that the hostel project, which had got to the lintel level, was suspended due to lack of materials to complete it. He said the converted hostel would have to be withdrawn since the school expects more students allocated by the computerized selection from distant areas of the region who have no relatives and guardians within the Nkran-Nkwanta community. Mr. Bekoe said the unfortunate situation had not only discouraged Junior Secondary School (JSS) pupils from choosing the school but has also scared teachers posted there making it difficult for the school to enjoy its staff establishment quota. He said apart from few teachers whom he described as patriotic and sympathetic to the cause of the innocent students, others only report to catch a glimpse of the school and use the lack of amenities and do not return.

Mr. Bekoe appealed to the MP for Dormaa West, Mr. Yaw Asiedu Mensah, and the DCE to treat the "Save Our Soul" ("SOS") message of the school as urgent and act without delay to assist it before the students begin to desert. The DCE assured the headmaster that the on-going electrification in the Nkran-Nkwanta Township would be extended to the school to enhance academic work and the President's Special Initiative on Distance Learning.

An Assemblyman for the town, Mr. Charles Adomah announced that the town had through its own efforts purchased a total of 421 out of 620 low-tension poles needed for the electrification and appealed to the MP and the District Assembly to assist with the remaining 199 poles.