Zebilla Senior High Technical School celebrates 40th anniversary

Headmaster of the school, Mr Richard Ayabilla Akumbas

Zebilla Senior High Technical School in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region has celebrated its 40th anniversary under the theme "The Success, Challenges and the Wayforward" on Saturday 10th December, 2022.

The Headmaster of the school, Mr Richard Ayabilla Akumbas, in his address described the academic performance of the school in the past years as "very improving."

He paid glowing tribute to the founding fathers and former Headmasters/Mistresses of the school for their foresight and dedication which paved way for the growth and development of the school.

He highlighted the vision, mission and core values of the school.

Mr. Akumbas praised the staff of the school for their hard work, dedication and commitment to duty which resulted in the many successes chalked up by the school.

The Headmaster lamented the challenges facing the school such as the lack of home economic block for practicals, lack of the needed equipment and machinery in the Technical Department, ill-equipped science laboratory, inadequate furniture, accommodation problems, irregular food supply by buffer stock, lack of transport among others.

He appealed to Government and Benevolent Societies to come to the aid of the school.

The Bawku West District Chief Executive, Alhaji Ahmed Issahaku Tahiru, on behalf of the Upper East Regional Minister lamented the indiscipline of students in some schools in the region where some students took the laws into their own hands by destroying school properties over petty issues.

He urged the students to avoid such behaviours that could destroy their future in the long run as negative reports would be made about them in their school reports.

The Director for pre-tertiary education, Mr Baffour Awuah who represented the Minister for Education as the Guest Speaker said the Free SHS policy has further heightened the nation’s resolve to provide unrestricted access to secondary school education, free of any form of discrimination, as prescribed by the 1992 Constitution.

He promised the school a pickup vehicle to ease the transportation challenges and assured the school that their challenges would be communicated to the sector minister.

The Member of Parliament of Zebilla, Hon Cletus Apul Avoka said the school has produced many prominent personalities who are contributing their quota in diverse ways to national development.

He mentioned the late John Ndebugri, late Hawa Yakubu, Mahami Salifu, himself and others who passed through the school during the middle school era and encouraged the students to continue to learn hard so as to be great leaders.

The MP donated Gh¢5,000, five footballs and two sets of Jersey to the school.

He pledged to support the school with funds to purchase dining hall benches.

The School Prefect, Master Akane Abubakar Kabiru said the quality and quantity of food served in the dining hall is nothing to write home about.

According to him, students at times are served lunch with gari with beans, evening with beans and the next day the same thing—lamenting lack of a balanced diet.

Master Kabiru was worried the one-way meal can cause students to fall sick even though they were aware of the economic crisis of the country.

He appealed to the government to take a critical look into the issue.

About the school
The Zebilla SHTS was established as a Community Day Secondary Technical School by the then Zebilla and elders of the Kusaug Traditional Area in September 1982 with only twenty-five (25) students and seven 7 teaching staff.

The school now has a population of two thousand two hundred and eight (2,208) made up of thousand two hundred and thirty-six (1,236) males and nine hundred and seventy-two (972) females. It has a total of one hundred and fifty (150) teaching staff and forty -five (45) non-teaching staff.

It was partially absorbed into the public stream three years later and fully absorbed in September 1980s.

Though the school has a serious infrastructural deficit, it has over the years trained several thousands of people in various fields of human endeavour who are contributing to the growth of society.

The school's Science, Biology, and Physics laboratories are very empty and teachers in that department had to improvise with innovative ways to teach the students.

The school population have outweighed the existing infrastructure forcing students to overcrowd dormitories and classrooms.