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07.11.2007 General News

Seventy-Nine Cram In Bungalow

07.11.2007 LISTEN
By Daily Graphic

Over 79 female students of the Worawora Senior High School in the Volta Region use the teachers' bungalow on the school campus as their dormitory.

This is the result of inadequate boarding facilities which have created congestion in the school. The bungalow has a living room, three bedrooms and a boys quarters. Twenty-five girls now sleep in the small living room while 29 others share the three bedrooms.

The boys quarters, which also has two rooms, has 15 girls sleeping in one with eight others in the other. The kitchen and store rooms have also been converted into box rooms.

Aside the crowding, the bungalow leaks badly so anytime it rains the girls have to quickly pack their clothes to a safe area to prevent them from getting wet.

Some of the nets on the windows are torn and louvre blades broken. The Boarding Prefect, Miss Evelyn Agobah, who conducted the Junior Graphic team round the boarding house, disclosed that due to the congestion in the rooms, some of the girls had no option but to sleep on the floor, as mounting more beds for them was impossible.

Miss Agobah said although all the rooms had fans, none of them had worked for the past two years. “This makes the rooms very hot which has caused us to develop heat rashes. Opening the windows is out of the question since that would invite mosquitoes into the rooms,” she said.

At the boys' dormitory, the story was not different. The storey building meant for classrooms had also been turned into a dormitory, while part of the building was being used as a library. The few rooms left were used for classes.

It was, therefore, not surprising when girls were found around the boys' dormitory because they had to use the library and the classrooms.

In an interview, the headmaster of the school, Mr Clemence Okyere-Danso, confirmed that the boarding houses were very congested.

According to him, currently, the continuing students did not have adequate space for sleeping and the situation would worsen when the form one students joined the others.

Mr Okyere-Danso said the school had over 70 acres of land, which when developed, would ease the congestion. However, due to lack of financial support, there was little his outfit could do about the congestion.

“Many of our students come from the north and other parts of the region, therefore, we cannot make them day students but have to keep them in the already congested boarding houses,” he said.

Story by Hadiza Quansah

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