The Fettehman Senior High School in the Central Region is appealing for the provision of accommodation facilities for teachers of the school.
Lack of such facility according to management of the school is affecting teaching and learning in the institution.
The school was built as a community day senior high school in February 2013 by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as a way of showing appreciation to the Chiefs and People of Gomoa Fetteh for releasing a piece of land for settlement of Refugees from Liberia at Budumburam camp.
Fettehman SHS currently has a population of about 1,500, but the huge population does not correlate with the infrastructure of the school putting a lot of burden on teaching staff and administration.
According to the headmistress of the school, Madam Stella Mawutor Kwame, the accommodation situation is getting worse as teachers trek miles to get to school sometimes delaying the start of academic work.
“The location of the school from a town where the teachers stay is a bit far and comes as a disincentive to the teachers. Apart from that, the zeal to work is low. Due to the lack of permanent teachers as a result of accommodation challenges, discipline is a problem. You can just imagine students left on their own because only a few teachers are here. We have a population of about 1,500 with only seven teachers stationed on campus.
“The infrastructure deficit is my headache. I would prefer that the dining hall and staff accommodation be provided. We have a hall that serves all purposes and if it is being occupied by other events, we sometimes make students sit under the trees for lessons. The same venue serves as a dining hall if the event being held at the hall goes beyond our normal school time. The science students also use the makeshift structure to do science practicals. It’s very sad, and I can’t imagine that,” the headmaster of the school complained.
She appealed to government and Non-Governmental Organisations to come to their aid.
“I will appeal that such essential laboratories should be built for us. We want to appeal to government and other NGOs to support us,” Madam Stella Mawutor Kwame appealed.
Board chairman of the school, Elvis Joe Annan who was speaking at the launch of the 10th-anniversary celebration of the school says they are planning to raise funds to build an accommodation facility for the headmistress and his assistant who are also not on campus adding that issues of limited classrooms for students cannot be left out of the equation.
“Our challenges are enormous and so there is the need for us to provide accommodation for them. The main focus of the anniversary is to raise funds to build a bungalow for the headmistress and the assistant who can stay on campus to take care of the children. As the Board Chairman, this has been my headache and I am hoping we can also get support from the government and other NGOs”.
“We are working hard with the community and the traditional authorities to see to it that our vision of seeing to it that there is adequate infrastructure in the school to serve staff of the school is fulfilled. Let’s come together and help Fettehman so that when the history of the school is read, our names will be part. We need a school bus to be conveying students to school since the old one we use breaks down easily. The issue of a dining hall cannot be left out since it is a big challenge,” the Board chairman of the school said.
The District Director of Education Francisca Degraft Johnson called on the school’s management to exercise restraint as government is already faced with challenges.
“As a directorate, we have done our best by following up with the district assembly, NGOs, and other benevolent individuals for support, and we are hoping that it will soon be addressed. You know government is already under a lot of pressure, but we are hoping that with time they will come to our aid. There are some critical areas we want to tackle such as the infrastructure since it will be a relief to the students and teachers,” Madam Francisca Degraft Johnson said.
Source: citifmonline
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