Support Gov't in the provision of school infrastructure - University Lecturer

Mr. Ayirebi Danso, a lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi has urged the people of Techimantia and its environs to complement government's efforts in the provision of infrastructure at the local Presbyterian Senior High Commercial School to enhance teaching and learning.

Mr. Danso was addressing the second speech and prize-giving day of the school at Techimantia in the Tano South District of Brong-Ahafo at the weekend.

The theme for the Programme was “Infrastructural Development, a necessary condition for quality education”.

He stressed that whilst it was true to say that a life without education is never to be fully met, and equally true to say that a human being is not complete without education, education could also be said to be useful only when it propelled the people towards development.

Mr Danso said two vital components when properly tapped could achieve the desired goal for education, and mentioned best environment and human resource.

A bad environment can discourage the best human resource from accepting a posting to work in an area, he explained.

He appealed to the traditional authorities and other stakeholders to contribute their quota to entice the students, teachers and non-teaching staff to lend their support to the school’s development programme.

Mr. Danso, who is the Director of the Department of Building Technology Consult of KNUST, acknowledged the introduction of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in educational institutions but expressed worry about the mode of training.

He suggested the need for policy makers in the educational sector to let the study of computer technology to involve all subjects including History, Geography and other programmes of study.

The lecturer commended the Universities for introducing Distant Learning Programmes, saying a research indicated that the enrolment of University entrants for distant learning outnumbered the normal traditional recruitment of students every academic year.

Mr. Kingsford Abraham Hinneh, headmaster of the school, complained about the poor infrastructural position of the school, which was established in 1974 and had a current student population of 1,000 and a teaching staff of 41.

“The infrastructure is not commensurate with the population of the school”, he said, with few classrooms and the majority of the Form One students studying under trees.

Mr. Hinneh said a few of the students were “jammed up in the temporary dinning hall block and have to give way to the boarders during breakfast, after which the hall is cleaned for classes to continue”.

Apart from the headmaster who is housed in a bungalow in the school, and the assistant headmaster and the senior housemaster housed in the PTA’s semi-detached bungalow, as well as the senior housemistress housed in an apartment attached to the girls dormitory, the rest of the teachers numbering more than 30, and the 29 non-teaching staff stayed outside the school compound, he stated.

“Most of the staff commute from about half a kilometer away from the school”, Mr. Hinneh said, saying the situation did not augur well for teaching and learning in a public school.

He appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to expedite action on the school’s application for conversion to a boarding status.

On academic performance, Mr. Hinneh said the school presented 98 candidates for the 2011 May-June West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and obtained a 100 per cent pass in at least six of the eight subjects.**