<<Print>>

Accommodation challenges facing Atafuah Senior High School at Akyem Oda in Birim Central Municipality of Eastern Region, has compelled the authorities to convert assembly hall into boys� dormitories. Mr Johnson Yeboah Gyekye, Headmaster has therefore appealed to the government to consider providing the necessary infrastructure to enable the school attain the status of a model academic facility. The Headmaster made this known when Ghana News Agency (GNA) Media Auditing and Tracking of Development project team visited the school. The GNA team was in the municipality to undertake media auditing and tracking of development to help promote transparency and accountability at the district level under a STAR-Ghana sponsored project. STAR-Ghana is a multi-donor pooled organisation. The school, which was one of the few senior high schools established by government in 1991, gained boarding status in 2012 and as a result, a vast area of land was released by the Akyem Kotoku Traditional Council for the project. Mr Gyekye said the school is very challenged in terms of facilities such as inadequate dormitory blocks, teachers� bungalows and the unavailability of an official vehicle for running of the administration. It has a population of 1,400 excluding 580 students who just completed the West African Senior School Certificate Examination with a boarding population of 1000, made up 450 females and 550 males. He said about four classrooms had also been converted into rooms to house additional boys. He said a two-storey dormitory is being constructed with its internally generated fund for the girls. He commended the government for the completion of an 18-unit classroom block which was started in 2004 and funded by Ghana Education Trust Fund. Mr Gyekye said the school still needs additional classrooms to take care of the ever increasing population of the school as more students are expected in the next academic year in October. He said another problem facing the school is offices for the administrators as the current administration block is too small. Mr Gyekye said out of the internally generated fund and with support from the Parent Teacher Association the school is constructing a workshop for the technical and carpentry department which is about 90 percent complete. The headmaster commended the teaching and non-teaching staff of the school for the selfless sacrifices for the development of the school.