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Government has directed contractors working on the Community Day Senior High Schools in the three regions of the north to speed up construction to prevent any further delays in completing the projects for commissioning.

Contractors working on the projects are yet to complete even one of the schools meant for the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

Deputy Minister in-charge of tertiary education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, speaking at the ‘Government for the People’ forum in Bolgatanga, bemoaned the lackadaisical attitude of contractors executing the projects to meet deadlines stated in the contracts, adding that, the contractors did not have any excuse for the delays.

“We have observed that contractors in the Upper East Region and indeed contractors in the three Northern regions working on the Community Day Senior High Schools are being very slow in completing these projects,” he said.

“There is no any excuse, we made provisions for pricing for all these projects especially those in the first phase and the World Bank ones so it is sad to say that, the contractors working on the Community Day Schools in the three Northern Regions, not even one of them has been completed.

“It is sad that in the Upper East Region phase one, community Day Schools such as the Sapilliga in Bawku West is 60% complete, Yameriga in Talensi is 43% complete, Kanjaga in Builsa South 79% complete and Paga in Kasena-Nankana West is 33% complete.

"Some of these projects should have been completed about six months ago and let me appeal to the contractors to speed up the completion of the projects,” the deputy Minister added.

Mr. Ablakwa hinted that, president John Dramani Mahama will soon cut sod for the construction of the University for Environment and Sustainable Development in the Eastern region in his quest to provide each region with an autonomous public university.

He added that, the University for Development Studies’ (UDS) Navrongo campus will soon become an autonomous university called the University for Technology and Applied Sciences, which take effect from the 2017/2018 academic year.