Mamprobi Salvation School compound besieged by drug addicts

Information reaching the Accra File indicates that the Mamprobi Cluster of Schools in Accra, are gradually becoming a 'wee' and noise hub, thereby depriving pupils off the serene atmosphere needed for learning.

A mechanic/fitting shop, public toilet and makeshift market are all sited in close proximity to the school, according to the teachers, and were having a toll on the school children.

The teachers said the school had been turned into a thoroughfare, which hawkers, traders and drug peddlers use to get to the fitting shop and public toilet on the other side of the school.

An anonymous concerned guardian, the paper spoke to, noted that the children were exposed to drug peddling during school hours.

The guardian said the situation was very pathetic. “Seeing teachers and pupils clearing feaces every Monday morning in their various classrooms, to pave way for teaching, is very pathetic, and sometimes the cleaning eats into the teaching period.”

A resident of the area, who pleaded anonymity, said the various classrooms, which were always locked, had been turned into homes, where all sorts of things were done by drug peddlers and prostitutes, and nobody dares challenge them.

He said during the just-ended vacation classes, when the children came to the school some youth were using their classroom as bedrooms, and it had to take the head of one of the schools, to tell them that the children were ready to learn, before they vacated the classroom for learning to commence.

According to the source, efforts by the school authorities to close the school gates, to prevent people from using the school as a route to the drug peddlers, had been thwarted by encroachers, since the fence wall around the cluster of school has been blocked by an individual, who as put up a building where the fence wall is supposed to run.

The source noted that classes comes to halt when youth from area besiege the school football field to play soccer, adding that most of the asbestos roofing sheets have been damaged by the football they play.

The source noted that due to these mishaps that had befallen the schools, most teachers preferred to be transferred, while the morale of the remaining teachers was very low, due to the hell they go through every Monday morning, cleaning human excreta.

The source emphasised that the due to the poor environment of the schools, most school children had become truants, adding also that the teachers could not monitor their movements.

The paper's tour around the school block revealed that the cluster of schools was in dire need of rehabilitation works.

Some of the walls of the classrooms had cracks, which if not repaired would cause a disaster if the building collapses during school period.

One of the headteachers, who pleaded anonymity, told the File that the school spends a lot on the purchase of padlocks, since the miscreants break the locks to use the classrooms.