Taboo; PESCO boys sleep in school’s kitchen

About 200 male boarding students of Peki Senior High School stand the risk of facing the wrath of the gods for using the School’s kitchen as a dormitory.

Mr. John N.Y. Agbai, Headmaster of the School, who expressed the apprehension at the school’s Speech and Prize Giving Day on Saturday said: “It is a big taboo.”

Traditionally, it is believed that the kitchen is a sacred place and many things happen there including spiritual encounters. Mr. Agbai therefore told the Ghana News Agency that if they were not careful to find a place for the students in time, “we might be in a big trouble”.

Mr. Agbai said the boys were making use of the kitchen because the school had no choice in view of its inadequate dormitory facilities.

Explaining further the traditional belief, he said, the sacred nature of the kitchen explained why old women sprinkle food around the earthenware at night for spirits.

The GNA learnt that the 55-year old school had only a four-unit single room facility built by the Parents, Teacher Association (PTA) as dormitory for about 400 male students.

Mr. Agbai said apart from a 21-unit three-storey classroom block constructed in 1975, the school had no other completed infrastructure for use.

He said female boarding students for instance were also using classrooms as dormitories.

Mr. Agbai mentioned the lack of assembly and dining halls as other major problems affecting quality teaching and learning and appealed to government to complete on-going infrastructural projects in the school on time.

He said despite the huge infrastructure deficit, the school scored 100 per cent in the 2011 West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) and had not recorded below 95 per cent since 2004.

Mr. Agbai commended the PTA and the School Board for their efforts.

Mr. Henry Ford Kamel, Volta Regional Minister, in a speech read on his behalf, reiterated government’s commitment to education and assured the school that all ongoing projects would be completed on schedule.

Mr. Emmanuel Keteku, Volta Regional Director of Education, commended the school for keeping faith with the Speech and Prize-giving Day concept and said he was not surprised about the school’s academic performance.

Touching on the theme for the Day: “Discipline: The Bedrock of Education”, he said, it was not only students who needed to be disciplined but teachers as well.

“As much as students have to make personal efforts to be disciplined at all times, they are much more successful when they have role models in their teachers,” Mr. Keteku stated.

He said the school had the potential to rub shoulders with the best schools in the country.**