Bechem Presby SHS old students construct library for alma mater
A former Ashanti regional minister, Mr Peter Anarfi-Mensah, has cut the sod for the construction of a 150-seater capacity library complex for the Presbyterian Senior High School at Bechem in the Brong Ahafo Region at a cost of GH¢300,000.
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The library, which is being constructed to commemorate the Golden Jubilee anniversary celebration of the school, is being financed with contributions from the old students of the school.
Mr Anarfi-Mensah, who is now a Minister of State at the Presidency, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, and his deputy, Mr Vincent Oppong-Asamoah, are among a host of high-profile personalities who are products of the school.
It was,therefore, a feeling of nostalgia when some of the old students met at the school to cut the sod for the commencement of the project.
Current library
With a current population of over 2,000, the current makeshift library of the school, popularly known as Bechem Presec, with a seating-capacity of about 40 students at a time, is inadequate to meet the needs of the students, and they scramble for seats at peak hours when most of them need a place to do extra reading to support what they have been taught in the classroom.
It was, therefore, a dream come true when the Headmaster of the school, Mr Raymond Agyeman, himself an old student, led his schoolmates to perform the sod-cutting ceremony.
The first phase of the project will ensure the completion of the ground floor of the project, which would comprise a large library hall and other facilities, while the second phase would have a modern ICT centre to facilitate research by both tutors and students of the school.
Addressing the students, Mr Anarfi-Mensah advised them to take advantage of the current facilities in the school to build a better future for themselves.
“Even though we did not have even a tenth of the facilities you currently have, we were able to use the little we had to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our counterparts in the well-endowed schools.”
Inadequate accommodation
For his part, Mr Agyeman expressed worry about the inadequate accommodation for tutors, most of whom lived outside the school does.
That situation, according to him, did not augur well for the enforcement of discipline in the school.
That situation, according to him, does not augur well for the enforcement of discilince in the school and, therefore, called on the government to provide adequate facilities for the school.
Initial contribution
At the meeting, more than GH¢12,000 was raised as seed amount for the commencement of the project, while more promises were made for the acquisition of the needed materials for the project.
Mr Agyeman asked everyone who had passed through the corridors of the school “to consider it a duty to contribute his or her ‘widow’s mite’ towards the completion of the library project”.
“Bechem Presec has raised us to become what we are today; it is now our duty to pay back with our contributions so that the completion of this library project will represent the love we old students have for our alma mater,” he said.
