Congestion At Mawuko Girls

Part of the Uncompleted Science Laboratory

Students and staff of the EP Church Mawuko Girls Senior High School (SHS) in the Volta Regional capital, Ho are facing many challenges in the school because many Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) projects in the school have been abandoned.

Despite several promises from the Education Ministry, GETFund officials and contractors, the projects have not been completed on time.

To this end, authorities of the school are struggling to provide quality education to students due to a myriad of challenges that have plagued the school.

The school, which has a student population of about 1,780, does not have adequate classrooms, dormitories, staff common rooms, science laboratory, among others.

Checks in the school revealed that some GETFund projects, which began in the school some years back, have still not been completed.

These include the Science Laboratory, Home Economics Department and a dormitory block, which could take over 400 students.

Students studying in Uncompleted Structure
There were weeds at the dormitory block, which showed that it had been abandoned for over three years.  Fortunately, the library block has almost been completed.

The staff common room for teachers was also small and some teachers work under trees.

The situation has also forced the school to use the uncompleted structures as classrooms, as well as parts of the dining hall.

More so, the congestion in the available has made teaching and learning difficult.

There was also congestion in the dormitories and students have packed their trunks and chop boxes on the corridors.

Apart from that, the school has no accommodation for teachers on campus except for two teachers.

Equipment in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) Laboratory and Science Laboratory were inadequate.

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The students and teachers called for support to equip very important departments.

Teachers under the tree
Authorities Worried
The Assistant Headmistress of the school in-charge of Welfare, Rose Nyawuto, said that the situation had become a 'headache' to management.

According to her, in anticipation of the completion of some of the projects, first-year students, who were admitted into the school for the 2015/16 academic year, far exceeded the vacancies declared during the computerised selection process.

She said they accepted and absorbed all the girls, who were posted because “we were assured that the projects, especially the dormitory, would be completed by September/October 2015. To date, the contractor has not come back to site. If these projects had been completed, they would have alleviated our challenges,” she stated.

Madam Nyawuto bemoaned the difficulty in maintaining discipline among students, especially those in the boarding house, as only two teachers were staying on campus due to the lack of staff accommodation.

“We need bungalows for our staff. Currently the headmistress doesn’t stay on campus. Only two female teachers are here taking care of the over 1,000 girls.

The rest of the teachers have to come from town every evening to supervise preps and ensure discipline on campus,” Madam Nyawuto stated.

The school’s Estate Officer, Samuel Kwame, however revealed that two of the contractors had resumed work after several follow-ups to complete work on some of the stalled projects—a Science Laboratory and Home Economics Department.

He noted that the dormitory project, which had been abandoned since 2012 would be repackaged and re-awarded to a new contractor.

He was optimistic the two of the projects would be completed by the end of the year.

From Fred Duodu, Ho ( [email protected] )