Deputy Minister inspects work on Wa secondary school project

Wa, Aug. 27, GNA- Mr Kwame Apofo Twumasi, a Deputy Minister of Education and Sports, on Friday directed that all facilities which have been completed under the programme to upgrade a number of senior secondary schools throughout the country into model schools be immediately handed over to the school authorities.

He said the handing over of completed facilities such as classrooms and dormitories to school authorities could enable them to determine the number of fresh students that should be admitted. Mr Twumasi, who is in charge of secondary and technical schools, gave this directive when he inspected work on a number of on going projects being funded by the government at the Wa secondary school in the Upper West Region.

He said on the whole the contractors had done a good job with the exception of works on the new boys dormitory and the new administrative block which were lagging far behind schedule. Mr Tumasi, however, observed problems with electrical works that were executed by the sub-contractors and ordered the AESL to terminate the contract of the sub-contractors and re-awarded it to the main contractors for the project for early completion of the work. He said the lessons learned from the implementation of the first phase of the upgrading programme would guide the ministry in the execution of the entire programme.

Mr Twumasi said in order to minimise problems contractors faced in getting work approved, the number of signatories had been reduced from 28 to eight to minimise the delay in processing their contract certificates for payment.

He urged contractors working on government funded projects to complete work on schedule to spare the government the burden of incurring additional costs due to price increases of building materials.

Mr George Gbeninya, the Regional Consultant of the Architectural and Engineering Service Limited (AESL), consultants to the project, said the original estimated cost of the project which was 16 billion cedis went up to 21 billion cedis as at December last year adding that the cost was likely to go up again in view of inflation.

The Wa secondary school project included the construction of a one-storey boys dormitory capable of accommodating 960 students, four new staff bungalows, an administrative block and the renovation of 35 staff bungalows, classrooms, and the girls' dormitory among other facilities.

The Wa secondary school was among 31 senior secondary schools being upgraded into model senior secondary schools under phase one of the upgrading programme.

Mr George Gbeninya, the Regional Consultant of the Architectural and Engineering Service Limited (AESL), consultants to the project and Mr Moses Doneyong, Headmaster of Wa secondary school conducted the minister round the project being under taken by a number of contractors.

Mr Twumasi's inspector tour also took him to Lawra where he inspected works at the Lawra secondary school which was also being upgraded into a model senior secondary school. He was accompanied by Mr Cletus Soyire Paagah, the Regional Director of Education.

The senior secondary school upgrading programme had been initiated by the government to improve, and upgrade facilities at the selected less endowed schools in order to bring them at the same level to the more endowed but few schools largely based in Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast and other cities.