Stray animals invade ‘abandoned’ schools, defecate on desks

Weeds and domestic animals have taken over a number of basic and second cycle institutions in the Northern and North East regions where Zoomlion Ghana Limited is currently disinfecting against the deadly Coronavirus.

The compound of the schools that have since March this year been closed due to the outbreak of the global pandemic have become a mini-forest of weeds and plants due to months of abandonment.

The situation has attracted domestic animals including sheep and goats, which now use the school compounds as grazing grounds, and the number of unlocked classrooms as their pen.

The floors, desks and veranda have also been filled with pelletized droppings of goats and sheep as well as their urine, leaving loathsome smell in the classrooms.

At the Dagbon State Senior High Technical School in Yendi where the Zoomlion disinfection team sprayed on Wednesday, the compound had overgrown with weeds while goats and sheep roam the area to feed on the grass and plants.

Most classrooms of the unwalled school had been filled with droppings and urine from the animals.

At the time of the disinfection exercise, the stray domestic animals were seen grazing and wandering the campus of the school as if the compound was an animal farm.

The headmaster of the school Alhassan Adam Mubarak told journalists monitoring the disinfection exercise that the situation was not the best and noted measures were being taken to prevent what he termed animal intrusion.

“You can see we’re trying to put a fence wall that would help us to at least control such animal intrusion,” he said.

Beyond that, he said the school management “is to make sure that we get lockable keys to all the classrooms”.

Notwithstanding, he said, the school was prepared to receive students from October 5 when academic activities are expected to resume for second-year students.

Touching on the disinfection exercise, he said the school was satisfied with the level of work done by Zoomlion, adding it will give parents assurance of the safety of their wards when they return to campus.

“We’re satisfied with the work done so far in preparation towards the reopening of schools. What is left now is for us to prepare ourselves” he stated.

The situation, meanwhile, was no different at the Yendi Senior High School, Ghana Senior High School in Tamale, Diani Primary as well as JHS and Janga Senior High Technical School in the North East Region, as weeds have grown around the classroom blocks of the school.

The campus of the Ghana Senior High School in Tamale, which had become a thoroughfare for pedestrians and moto riders, had become bushy, making it a prime area for cattle and other domestic animals to graze and sleep.

The Disinfection Exercise

The third round of nationwide Covid-19 disinfection of schools by Zoomlion Ghana Limited under the auspices of the Ministry of Education forms part of measures by the government to protect students and staff of the various schools.

The exercise is being carried out concurrently in all the 16 regions of Ghana by thousands of spraying gangs and state-of-the-art equipment by Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

District Manager of Zoomlion for West Mamprusi Mohammed Abdul-Razak said 130 public schools and 42 private schools, of which six are SHS, are benefiting from the COVID-19 disinfection exercise in the district.

He said the exercise was important, particularly when some students are to return to the classroom from October 5.

“They should be rest assured that the place is safe for them to come and carry out their learning activities,” he assured.