Advertisement

Kukuom Agriculture SHS celebrates 38th milestone

The Kukuom Agricultural Senior High School (SHS), established 38 years ago, has celebrated its maiden homecoming and Speech and Prize-giving day at Kukuom in the Asunafo South District in the Brong Ahafo Region.

The theme for the celebration was “Challenges to quality education in the rural area.”

Student population
The school, which began with 10 students in a typical rural setting as a private institution, now has a student population of 935, made up of 507 boys and 428 girls. Of this, 414 are boarders and 521 are day students.
It also has a staff strength of 94, made up of 50 teaching and 44 non-teaching staff.

Programmes
Years ago, students of the school undertook their studies in only three programmes, namely General Arts, Business and Agricultural Science, but through efforts of certain interest groups, three new programmes have been added—General Science, Home Economics and Visual Arts.
According to authorities of the school, there are plans to add studies in technical courses in the coming years.
In view of this, the Kukuom Traditional Council has donated 250 acres to the school for the expansion of its facilities and agricultural activities.
So far, the school has an administrative block, a well-equipped science laboratory, a two-storey boys dormitory, a computer laboratory, 50 laptop computers and one Mahindra pick-up, all of which were acquired within the last five years. At the moment, the school is undertaking the construction of a nine-unit classroom block.

Challenge
One major challenge of the school  faces is the absence of staff accommodation and a wall to keep the students on campus for effective monitoring and supervision, taking into account the many unapproved routes to the school.

Member of Parliament
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister and Member of Parliament for Asunafo South, Mr Eric Opoku, who was the Guest of Honour for the occasion, paid homage to the founding fathers of the school for laying a solid foundation.
He called for unity of purpose in seeking solutions to the problems and challenges bedevilling the school.
He said the challenges facing the school required the attention of all stakeholders, who have over the years made significant contributions to the infrastructural development of the school.

Teachers
In this direction, he said government recognised and appreciated the critical role teachers played to improve  education in the country.
He said the government was guided by the policy that sought to adequately remunerate teachers and create a congenial atmosphere for them to work in peace. “We expect them to reciprocate the gesture by evaluating the standards of education now and make efforts to improve on it .”

Educational reforms
The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, Dr George Adjei-Henne, said the country had implemented so many educational reforms since independence, all aimed at providing qualitative education.
However, he said, after all these reformation programmes, there were still doubts if our expectations had been met.
He observed that disparities with regard to the provision of infrastructure between urban and rural schools had resulted in a wide gap in terms of performance between schools nationwide.

Lack of resources
Dr Adjei-Henne said rural schools lacked state-of-the art infrastructure such as dormitories, classrooms, science and information computer technology laboratories, staff accommodation, transportation, sanitary facilities and potable water.
He said the absence of classrooms and laboratories affected many schools such that there was now a  predominance of students studying humanities over other courses in rural schools.

School-Community relationship
The Headmaster of the school, Rev. Andy Gyabaa, said the relationship between the community and the school over the years had been healthy, adding that there was peace and harmony currently, especially after a demonstration hit the school about two years ago.

Connect With Us : 0242202447 | 0551484843 | 0266361755 | 059 199 7513 |