Work is progressing steadily on a new infrastructure for the O’Reilly Senior High at Okpoi Gonno in the Ledzokuku Krower Municipality (LEKMA) of the Greater Accra Region.

The infrastructure include an administration and classroom blocks, a science laboratory, as well as dormitories for both male and female students.

The project, which began last year, is being financed by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

It is expected to be completed before the commencement of the 2012-2013 academic year.

While an existing facility on the new site had been secured for temporary administration, the first floor of the boys dormitory had been completed, while two storey 18-unit classroom block was at the foundation level.

The project would have reached an advanced stage but for a revised plan.

O’Reilly has since its establishment in 1925 at Korle Worko in Accra, not had a permanent site. The school has been moved from one location to another.

The locations are Tudu, James Town, Kokomlemle, Workers College and at its present site at Adabraka, where it is being operated from a rented premises. It is the fourth oldest senior high school in the country.

In September 20011, the Ghana Education Service (GES) initiated a move to transfer students and staff of the school to other schools as a result of the service’s inability to purchase the present facility.

That, stakeholders of the school saw as a gradual process to phase it out since there was no indication that a permanent site was being established.

The GES, in 2011, had directed in a letter that no form one students was to be admitted for the 2010-2011 academic year. Additionally, it said, the then SHS Two students of the school were to be distributed among other SHSs, while the staff were to be reposted.

It said in preparation for the 2011 deadline for the school to vacate its present premises, it had become necessary to take the decisions mentioned.

The letter, dated August 9, 2010 and addressed to the headmistress of O'Reilly SHS, said, 'In this direction, you are required to make possible effective distribution of SHS students to sister schools, submit to the Director of Secondary Education a comprehensive list of all SHS Two students and the programme each is offering and their places of residence”.

As a result of the GES’s decision, four municipal and metropolitan assemblies offered to host the school. They are the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, The Ga South Municipal Assembly, Ga West Municipal and Ledzokuku Krowor Municipal Assembly (LEKMA).

Following a visit to the new site, the executive members of the old students association, expressed their delight at the progress of work being undertaken.

The old students delegation comprised the interim President, Mr Emmanuel Amoako Yirenkyi; Vice-President, Mr Jerry Fiawoyire; the Secretary, Mr Sulley Paa Alidu; the Treasurer, Millicent Carr Azumah, as well as Messrs Francis Annan, a member of the association and Laud Bekoe, a tutor, who led members of the association to the site.

They appreciated the work of the Headmistress, Mrs Mary Adu-Gyamfi and the MCE for LEKMA, Mr Daniel Mensah.

They appealed to the government to ensure that students and staff are moved to the new location by the commencement of the 2012-2013 academic year in September.

“Following our visit to acquaint ourselves with the progress of work, we have decided to marshall resources to assist in the construction of the facelift,” Mr Yirenkyi told the Daily Graphic, adding that an emergency meeting had been scheduled for June 10, 2012 to decide on how to assist.

He, however, dropped a hint of the old students mobilising funds to construct a fence wall around the school to prevent encroachment of the school’s land.

For his part, Mr Alidu appealed to old students who were not part of the association to get on board and assist in the relocation and construction of the new site for the school.

O’Reilly was established in 1925 by Reverend O'Reilly, a Sierra Leonean. It was adopted by the government in 1960 as a public school.