Work on Amasaman SHS infrastructural projects stalls - School appeals to government for assistance
Work on school infrastructure at the Amasaman Senior High Technical School (AMASTECH) in the Ga East municipality has stalled, affecting academic work at the school.
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Fifty per cent of the 800 students who were sent to the school under the computerised school selection and placement system (CSSPS) for the 2016/17 academic year were not offered admission due to inadequate infrastructure.
Currently, most of the 71 teaching staff commute to the school from distant parts of Accra, Nsawam and Kasoa.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr Alfred Vaeta, has, therefore, appealed to the government to help complete some of the infrastructural projects, including classroom blocks, dormitories and assembly halls, which were initiated by the school’s Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) as an expansion measure to address the infrastructural challenge.
"Work on 600-unit dormitories each for male and female students and a four-storey assembly hall with classrooms at various stages of completion hasbeen abandoned because of lack of funds. There can be no access to quality secondary education for the students in this area if nothing is done about it," Mr Vaeta emphasised.
Silver jubilee
Mr Vaeta was speaking at the Silver Jubilee and Speech and Prize- giving Day of the school held last Saturday.
The event was on the theme: "Enhancing the Standard of Education at Second Cycle Level for National Development - the Role of Stakeholders."
Infrastructure
Mr Vaeta also appealed to the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the other stakeholders in education management to support AMASTECH to establish a workshop for the Technical, Home Economics and Visual Arts programmes, stressing that teaching those technical courses in abstract, as was being done due to lack of the required facilities, hindered the proper harnessing of the potential in the students.
Touching further on the infrastructure deficit in the school, the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Ghana, Professor Jonathan Fletcher, said it was important for the right infrastructure to be established in second cycle institutions to ensure quality in the delivery of education.
According to him, while initiatives were being taken to make education accessible to all in the country, the critical thing was to ensure that the right resources and modern equipment were provided to boost teaching and learning.
Quality
He added that a combination of efforts by the government and participation in education by the private sector had significantly enhanced access to education in the country, but added that what was left was for resources to be committed to improving quality.
In light of that, he called for emphasis to be placed on building the capacity of teachers, who, he said, formed the pivot around which any quest to achieve quality education revolved.
"One way of improving the quality of teaching is by providing teachers with the opportunity to develop their subject knowledge base through refresher courses and the use of modern information and communications technology (ICT)," he said.
Collaboration
Other speakers at the event, while calling for effective collaboration between second cycle institutions and the PTAs, also urged past students to partner with the management of their alma mater to take up development projects.
They further encouraged students to be interested in technical and vocational courses in order to acquire relevant skills needed for national development.
At the event, students who performed creditably in the various subjects were presented with awards. Some teaching and non-teaching staff were also awarded for excelling in their areas of endeavour.