KPANDO SCHOOL TEACHERS SHARE FACILITIES ...They have inadequate accommodation (PAGE 11)

The Headmaster of Kpando Senior High School in the Volta Region, Mr Geoffrey Bissi, has expressed concern about the poor infrastructural facilities in the school and appealed for support to improve on the situation.
At the school’s 56th speech and prize-giving day, Mr Bissi said the school had never been fortunate to enjoy assistance from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to improve its infrastructure.
He said, for example, that construction of a dining/assembly hall complex that was started in 1978 but had not been completed, adding that although work resumed in November 1999, it was abandoned again in 2000 because of lack of funds, and as a result, the hall leaked profusely.
The headmaster also said there were inadequate accommodation facilities to house the school’s 54 teachers, and indicated that the situation had created serious congestion in the few facilities available, since the teachers shared the limited facilities.
He, therefore, appealed to the government to construct additional accommodation facilities for teachers and also release more funds to complete the assembly/dining hall complex.
Mr Bissi also appealed to the authorities to tar the 1.5-kilometre access road to the school to enhance accessibility.
He said the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) had financed the construction of a semi-detached bungalow for two teachers at a cost of GH¢7,400 and a girls’ dormitory block at a cost of GH¢11,000, fenced the frontage of the school and fixed a gate.
He said the PTA had further placed order for 400 mono desks to augment current classroom furniture stock, adding the PTA had by this proved their commitment to support the provision of quality education.
Reacting to the headmaster’s remarks, the Mr Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, expressed surprise at the slow rate of infrastructural development at the school and pointed out that nothing had changed since he last visited the school 15 years ago.
Delivering an address on the theme ”the Responsible Parenthood and Teacher Professionalism: Key to Quality Education”, Mr Tettey-Enyo said education was a complex process which involved not only children and their teachers but the family as well.
Acknowledging the fact that quality education produced a balanced personality and useful citizen, the minister called on all stakeholders to collectively rise up to the challenge to curb the emerging computer fraud, truancy, smoking, alcoholism, occultism, petty thefts and the extortion of money from juniors that had plagued many schools today.
The Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, called for the extension of pension age of teachers to 65 years so that the nation could tap their expertise.
The Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Ms Akua Sena Dansua, thanked the people for their hard work resulting in the modest achievement chalked up so far and expressed optimism that the promises by the President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills, to ensure equitable distribution of resources would benefit the school.