GOVT TO PROTECT LANDS FROM ENCROACHERS (PAGE 3, NOV 22, 2010)

VICE-President John Dramani Mahama has expressed the government’s displeasure at the level of encroachment on school lands which has dire consequences for discipline among students.
He said people living near various second-cycle schools in the country had gradually moved closer to settle on portions of the school lands, thereby making it difficult to separate the schools from neighbouring communities.
The Vice-President made these remarks last Saturday when he addressed the speech and prize-giving ceremony at the Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO) in Tamale which was held as part of activities to climax the school’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
Over 30 students received awards for excelling in various subjects, while some staff members, individuals and corporate bodies were also honoured for their various contributions towards the progress of the school.
The event, held on the theme: “Secondary Education in Northern Ghana: The role of GHANASCO at 50”, was graced by a number of important personalities, including ministers of state, educationists and heads of institutions, some of whom are past students.
The event, characterised by intermittent cultural performances by the students, generated an atmosphere of nostalgia as old students of the school, including the Vice-President, had the opportunity to meet again and share memories of their days in GHANASCO.
Mr Mahama said the government would provide the resources to construct fence walls round all second-cycle schools as a measure to prevent further encroachment.
He cited works on fence walls for GHANASCO and other senior high schools in the region as a demonstration of the government’s commitment to that goal.
He said the government had an elaborate plan to accelerate the construction of more dormitory and classroom blocks in all second-cycle schools to ease the suffering among students but called on parents and the private sector to offer some assistance in that regard.
Mr Mahama praised Ghana’s first President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, for playing a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the north and the south in the area of education, a gap that resulted from the late start of formal education in the north.
Speaking on the theme for the occasion, the Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Prof Haruna Yakubu, said the achievements of GHANASCO served as a catalyst for the establishment of other schools in the north.
He said GHANASCO was one of the schools established under the Ghana Education Trust programme introduced by the Nkrumah administration and that till date, GHANASCO remained the second largest secondary school in the Northern Region.
Prof Yakubu noted that the Nkrumah administration supported education in the north as a strategy to bridge the human resource gap between the south and the north.
He commended the government for sustaining the payment of subsidies to northern schools but stressed the need for those grants to be released on time so that the purpose for which they were being provided would not be defeated.
The Headmistress of GHANASCO, Madam Mary Asobayire Dan-Braimah, appealed to the government, alumni of the school and corporate bodies to support the school to overcome its numerous challenges, such as the poor state of accommodation facilities for both staff and students and the lack of a spacious assembly hall.