Tamale Government Secretarial School facing infrastructure challenges

THE Government Secretarial School in Tamale is facing a huge infrastructure deficit which is crippling efforts by the school to expand its programmes and admissions.

For over 60 years since the school was established, no additional infrastructure has been constructed for the school.

The entire school is still housed in a single storey block. Whilst the ground floor is used as a hostel to accommodate some of the students, the rooms at the upper floor serve as the lecture halls, administration and other departments of the school.

This building has been renovated on a number of occasions by the Northern Regional Coordinating Council.

The school currently has a total population of more than 100 and 20 are staying in the hostel, which poses some discomfort to them due to the limited space.

"We are crowded in the halls and some of us have no beds to sleep on," a Grade 1 student, Fauzi Yakubu lamented.

Aside the overcrowding, she said the hostel lacked essential facilities like a kitchen and that the bathhouse could only take four students at a time.

Another student, Hamza Balchisu, also in Grade 1, complained of shortage of potable water.

"The tank we have is small and so when the pipes are not flowing, the water in the tank gets finished in no time and we are left stranded," she said.

History

Principal

Established in 1952, the Tamale Government Secretarial School was one of seven secretarial schools and other training schools set up by the government to train office secretaries to work in the civil and public service.

Courses such as Typewriting, English, Shorthand and Office Management were introduced.

Over the years, the authorities of the school have seen the need to introduce a Diploma in Business Studies (DBS) to provide an opportunity to the graduates of the intermediate level to upgrade themselves further.

However, the lack of infrastructure and funding support remains a setback to the school.

The French Assistance

The French Government recently came to the assistance of the school by establishing a computer laboratory in one of the rooms at the upper floor. It has 32 computers, a server for internet connection and other auxilliary facilities.

In addition, the French government also extended a portion of the storey building  with an additional hall to accommodate more students.

The total cost of the two projects were estimated to cost GH182,000.

The French Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Federic Clavier inaugurated these facilities on Monday and explained that the support to the school was part of a project assisting the government of Ghana to train the requisite human resource needed for the civil service.

He said the France government was preparing a new cooperation with the government of Ghana to improve accountability mechanisms in the functioning of both local and central government structures.

Speaking at that ceremony, the Acting Chief Director in the office of the Head of Civil Service, Alhaji Alidu Fuseini, said government secretarial schools and sister training institutions have remained relevant because they continue to fill the gaps in the skills and competency levels of civil and local government staff.

"They continue to also provide employable skills to the youth," he further noted.

Alhaji Fuseini admitted that  over the years these training institutions have not had adequate budgetary allocation for maintenance and upgrading of their infrastructure and this accounts for their current poor state.

Serious attention needed 

The Principal of the School, Mrs Sherifatu Gyimah lauded the French government for coming to the aid of the school and indicated that the computer laboratory, for instance, would greatly enhance the teaching and learning of ICT.

She however stressed that the school required serious attention to fix its infrastructural deficit to bring it at par with other secretarial schools throughout the country.

"Till date, we are still dwelling in a single storey building," she lamented, adding that the school did not also have a means of transport.

"We are making a humble appeal to the government, development partners, non-governmental organisations and other able and capable bodies to assist us have at least one more storey classroom block," she appealed.

"The hub of every developed and developing country is human resource development and secretaries are a pivot of this development," she said.
(Also published in the Daily Graphic of June 15, 2013, p. 28)