Only The Bible Was Not Burnt

A holy Bible was the only item salvaged from the debris of the Accra Metro Education office building at Kinbu which was gutted by fire a week ago. The holy book was found on a table at the ground floor of the one-storey building. Every other item, including archival records as well as computers and their accessories and furniture were destroyed. This came to light when the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Benedicta Naana Biney, inspected the ravaged building. The Metro Education Office is housed in one of a three-string ancient building erected in 1909 on what used to be Governor Row Road, now Kinbu Road. It originally accommodated the Government Teacher Training College and later in 1924, it housed Achimota College before becoming the head office of the Education Department of the Colonial Government from 1928 to 1956 and has since remained and education office. Interacting with journalists after the inspection, Ms Biney said GES will recommend the relocation of the office of the Accra Metro Directorate of Education to the Ministry of Education for consideration. She noted that the present location of the office in the central business area was not the best in terms of security and conductive atmosphere for effective administrative work. To this end, she said the GES will convene a meeting with stakeholders, including the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council, to explore the possibility of the relocation. Ms Biney said as an interim measure, GES will collaborate with the AMA to rehabilitate the damaged buildings while efforts are made to get an office to temporary accommodate the staff so as to have uninterrupted administrative work.She stressed the used for official documents and information tabs stored on pen drives and compact discs �instead of writing them on sheets of papers or storing them on computers.� The Metro Director, Nii Okaija Dinsey, supported the idea of relocating the office saying �the cost of reconstruction will be huge as compared to construction of structures at a new site.� He stressed the need to intensify fire prevention education at workplaces to benefit workers and institutions.