Prempeh College dormitory balustrade to be raised?

A story written by Donald Ato Dapatem published in the Tuesday, October 13, 2015 edition of the daily graphic volume19896, page-29 caught me thinking.

The story captioned the headline – ‘Prempeh College dormitory balustrade to be raised’. I have no problem with the writer since he has the mandate to report vividly what goes on and around the country. He stated clearly why the balustrade is to be raised. My problem lies on the interventions.

………. ‘Following the death of a final year student of Prempeh College in Kumasi, who fell from the second floor of the Opoku WareII dormitory, educational authorities in the metropolis have directed that the low balustrade be raised to forestall future accidents…… Briefing the daily graphic after a visit to the school, the metro director of education, Mr. Alexander Attah Asante, said “we have directed the headmaster to look for the consultant who supervised the construction of the structure and ensure the balustrade is raised”….. He said the decision was taken after it was realized that the three-line balustrade “was not high enough”.

Every Ghanaian who has attended any Senior High School, the University, the Teachers or Nursing training Colleges will bear me witness that these Schools have their balustrades if there is one, lower than what Prempeh College had had and had maintained.

In this country, we all wait for an accident to plunge us before we take pragmatic decision and measures. Our elders say, “The tree that threw “Prempeh” into half-alive and half-dead, “Asasco” does not doze under it for whatsoever reason”. There is another I have read from our elders that says, ‘once bitten twice shy’ and it is transliterated as……. “The one who has been bitten by snake fears an earthworm”. These old adages catapults us to the fact that no child with only two senses out of the God-given five working will play around balustrades meant to confine them after realizing the dangers and what has happened to a fellow. I know, no students no matter how stubborn will play around balustrades in their schools. They will not even touch them.

Am tempted to state here that, we look like the vulture that is triggered to build a home after it has been subjected to an overnight rain. Every Head of Schools, Educational Directors, Senior-Housemasters, Housemasters, Teachers and Parents know the level of these balustrades in our schools. We have schooled in these Schools and some of us even stubbornly go to the extent of sitting on these metallic poles. Because none of us fell off it, we did not realize what could have happen to any human in this generation and the subsequent ones where students would rather play games, rap, gamble, break bounds in Schools than learning. Why then did none of these stakeholders see the possible dangers the height of the balustrades will cause? And we wait till a life is lost before we make directives? Did same thing not happen in All Nations University College in Koforidua? It only became news for the media houses. The sad news was on the waves and died the

subsequent week. Who was held responsible? Now the innocent boy is gone and like the vulture, we have begun making quick interventions. Perhaps, it may not be anything close to a storey building but that refuse close to the kitchen and the gas.

As people in a country, we need not a wake-up only when disaster looms and stuck us. We should see beyond what Dr. Kwame Nkwamah laid down. There are many institutions that pose threat to our children. There are schools that have heavy cracks running through the walls and the ceilings. Who then is watching? That school bus….. Are we waiting for it to throw students and pupils on an excursion away before we take caution? That hip of refuse, the graduate who have left the Universities and looking for jobs….. Are we waiting for them to point guns at us before we recruit them? Are we taking precautions or we are looking on unconcerned? Flood kills annually in Accra each time there is rain. What measures have to be in place to forestall future happenings? Strike actions, cholera outbreak. Have we given up the campaign? If we don’t sit up and tackle issues at its root, nip the issue on the bud, but rather fold our arms and look unconcern, we all will

one day hold hands and as if we are strayed cattle fall in a DITCH.

We need a wake-up as a people. We need to build Ghana again.

Wisdom Bonuedi
The writer is a Teacher who writes issues on Education, Politics, Social life and Humanity

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