Daily Graphic (front page), Wed, May 12/10
Story Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
FEARS that the admission of fresh students to senior high schools (SHSs) will have to wait till next February has been assuaged.
This follows an assurance from the Ghana Education Service (GES) that the September 2010 deadline for the provision of infrastructure for the schools will not be compromised.
And to confirm that, work has been intensified to provide each of the 495 SHSs in the country with an additional six-unit classroom block and a dormitory to meet the September target of the four-year programme.
Dispelling rumours that the intake of first-year students would be delayed to February 2011 due to inadequate infrastructure, the Director of Basic Education at the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, told the Daily Graphic that the GES was working around the clock to ensure that the projects were ready by September.
The construction of the buildings has become key due to the extension of the SHS course from three to four years by the previous administration.
The current government has however expressed its intention to pursue the necessary legal instruments to revert to the three- year SHS programme.
According to Mr Adu, the GES was relying on the contractors working on the projects to pre-finance them, in addition to money that would be provided by the government, so that the work would be completed on time.
He said work in some schools was almost complete and cited the Accra Girls’ SHS in Accra as an example.
Furthermore, he said the sector minister had met with the contractors on the projects, who gave the assurance that work would be completed by the stipulated date.
In March this year, the Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, told newsmen in Accra that a minimum of six-unit classroom structures for the schools and more than 100 dormitories would be built to cater for at least 200 students in all the schools.
The government, he said, needed hundreds of millions of Ghana cedis and had provided GH¢45 million from the GETFund, while Cabinet had charged the Ministry of Finance to provide the rest.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said in addition to the six-unit classroom blocks, construction work on projects in some schools would be fast-tracked and completed, adding that the donors in charge of those structures would be contacted to get them completed.
A report in the Daily Graphic issue of April 7, 2010 said the government had secured GH¢45 million from the GETFund as the first tranche of a multi-million cedi package for the construction of accommodation facilities for students in the 495 SHSs due for admission in the 2010/2011 academic year.
The GH¢225 million package programme is expected to prepare the schools in readiness for the academic year, as well as allay fears among parents and heads of SHSs.
The programme, which is expected to be in two phases, began with the first phase of 150 schools in April, while the second phase began in May and will be completed by September this year.
The first phase of the package covered selected schools which had classroom blocks that could take care of the students but did not have dormitories.
To ensure the successful completion of the projects, a task force, comprising the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the Office of the Chief of Staff, the Public Works Department (PWD) and the Architectural Engineering Services Limited (AESL), has been set up to work on the timely completion of the project.
The ministry has identified quick-built technology using both local and foreign materials for construction.
Three companies conversant with the adoption of the technology in the country have been engaged to carry out the construction works.
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