AUTHORITIES of the Business Senior High School (BISCO) in Tamale have expressed worry over the increasing spate of encroachment on the school’s land.
According to them, the extent to which some inhabitants of Nyohini and other surrounding communities were developing settlements on portions of the land belonging to the school was a threat to the smooth operation of the school.
The authorities, who spoke to the Daily Graphic in an interview, noted that soon the school may not have adequate space to construct more classroom blocks, dormitories, administrative blocks and staff accommodation.
They also expressed fears that the school’s environs and the neighbouring communities could be merged into a single community and this could have negative implications for the maintenance of discipline.
The headmaster of BISCO, Mr Saaka Bakeri Awari blamed the situation on the school’s inability to provide a fence wall due to the unavailability of adequate funds.
He therefore made an urgent appeal to the government, corporate bodies and alumni to support the school to construct a wall to fence the school’s premises so as to halt further encroachment and safeguard the rest of the land.
Mr Awari explained that apart from protecting school lands, the fence wall would also help the authorities to supervise the movement and activities of the students so as to guard against indiscipline behaviour.
According to him, the absence of a fence allowed the boarding students to move in and out of the campus easily and all manner of persons also had 24-hour access to the school, therefore exposing the students to all kinds of dangers, including theft and sexual harassment.
The headmaster also mentioned that aside the problem of encroachment, the school was bedevilled with other challenges, one of which was inadequate accommodation facilities for both students and staff.
He said the school had a student population of about 2300 students and yet it had limited boarding facilities to house the boarding students, which has therefore led to overcrowding in the various dormitories.
Mr Awari mentioned that the construction of a boys’ dormitory was currently ongoing and when completed, it would help decongest the existing boys’ dormitories.
He however stressed the need for a similar project to be undertaken to cater for the girls, since they were equally facing accommodation challenges.
On the provision of classrooms, the headmaster mentioned that the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) had constructed a new 6-unit classroom block with a recreational hall, bath and toilet for the school.
He said the classrooms in the new block were being used by some of the about 500 newly admitted students of the school, adding that if not for the new block, the school, like many other schools, would not have been able to hold classes for the Year One students.
Mr Aware mentioned that the GETFund had also awarded on contract an 18-unit classroom block project to augment the current number of classrooms.
He said the challenge now was how to provide accommodation to cater for the increasing number of students, because the dormitories available were woefully inadequate.
2 comments:
YES. THIS IS WHAT BISCO IS TRULY FACING. DUE TO THE ABSENCE OF THE WALL, STUDENTS STAY OUT OF CAMPUS AND RENT ROOMS(BONKI) AND STAY THERE INSTEAD OF BEING IN SCHOOL. HOW CAN SUCH STUDENTS PASS THEIR EXAMS. AND ALSO PREFECTS AND CADET HAVE BEEN COLLABORATED TO WORK ON THIS BUT STILL THE SAME. MOST STUDENT HAVE THE FEAR FOR CADET BUT HOW CAN WE RECOGNIZE THEM IF WE ARE ALL WEARING THE SAME UNIFORM WITH THEM IF THEY ARE CARRYING OUT OPERATION . I THINK THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD REALLY WORK ON THIS TO CHANGE THE SITUATION FOR THOSE READY TO LEARN . I DO EXPERIENCE THIS BECAUSE I AM ALSO A YEAR ONE STUDENT FROM THE SCHOOL.
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