MEDASS: 40, still grappling with inadequate infrastructure
Forty years ago, the Tema Methodist Day Senior High School (MEDASS), started as a category "C" school.
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The school was established in 1983 to absorb the ever-increasing products of the junior high schools in the Tema Metropolis and its surrounding towns such as Ashaiman, Kpone, Nungua, Zenu and Atadeka, among others.
Since then, MEDASS has contributed to the education delivery and training of many young minds, some of who are contributing to national development.
Forty years on and despite its contribution to education delivery, the school remains a category "C" school, basically because of lack of infrastructure.
Despite attempts by previous and current governments at improving the quality of education, the school continues to grapple with limited infrastructure.
Pressure
From an initial enrolment of 33 students, the school's current enrolment stands at 1,500 operating from two campuses, a situation, management of the school explained was putting immense pressure on the limited school infrastructure.
Speaking at the launch of the 40th anniversary celebration and unveiling of a new classroom project initiated by the old students association of the school on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, the headmistress of the school, Juliana Nancy Frimpong, explained that the inadequate infrastructure in the school was hindering effective teaching and learning.
"If you take the old campus, we have just a block there but even that building is very weak and it is a death trap. In fact, when we have students there and I see the weather changing, my heart bleeds and I always pray that God should have mercy on us," she said
She added that at the new campus, the school could boast of just two completed blocks, while the rest of the infrastructure remain uncompleted.
The uncompleted projects include a Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) block which is about 80 per cent complete, a two-classroom block funded by the Tema Metropolitan Assembly and a 20-classroom block started by the Methodist University, which have all stalled.
Management of MEDASS is, therefore, appealing to the government and other stakeholders to provide them with a befitting classroom block and other facilities to enhance teaching and learning.
Old students
As part of the 40th anniversary celebration of MEDASS, the old students’ association has launched a fundraising programme to raise GH¢25 million for a multipurpose school complex.
The president of the association, John Aseeph, in an interview said the proposed project, which had been scheduled to be completed in 10 years when the school celebrated its golden jubilee, would take care of the critical infrastructure needs of the school such as classrooms, science and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) laboratories, canteen, as well as an assembly hall.
He said after 40 years of quality education and raising people who had gone on to play significant roles in the nation’s development, the alumni had come up with a fundraising strategy and
urged all to come onboard to give the school a befitting facelift.
He said MEDASS had over the years produced star entertainers such as Stonebwoy, Sarkodie, Eno Barony and Stay Jay among others and the alumni intended to rally all who had passed through the school to help raise funds to support the initiative.
Mr Aseeph called on all past students, the various industries and businesses in Tema, as well as friends to help raise the money to support the school.
Reverend Dr Solomon Nortey of the Mount Zion Methodist Church, Sakumono and a former SRC President of MEDASS, who chaired the 40th anniversary launch, unveiled the architectural design of the new MEDASS school complex.
Support
The Sales and Marketing Manager of Alisa Hotels, Mariam Akua Dacquah, on behalf of the Managing Director of Alisa Hotels, Kwame Ofosu Bamfo, who was billed as the Guest of Honour, lauded the old students for their initiative, saying without a conducive infrastructure for formal education, students would be deprived of their rights.
"Our business is cited in the same area as the school and we are aware of the infrastructural challenges in the school,” she said. On behalf of Mr Bamfo she presented GH¢10,000 to support the initiative.
The MP for the Central Tema Constituency, Yves Nii Noi Hanson-Nortey, for his part acknowledged that the infrastructure deficit had been a major challenge facing schools in the area.
He said although the government was doing its best to ameliorate the situation, the pace of infrastructure development was not as fast as everyone would have wished.
Mr Hanson-Nortey, who donated GH¢5,000 towards the construction of the new school building, urged the students to study hard and make the best use of the opportunities offered them.
The Secretary of Synod of the Tema Diocese of the Methodist Church Ghana, Very Rev. Ebenezer P. Adjei, called on the government to remember MEDASS in its provision of educational support for schools in the Greater Accra Region.
He said though the church was doing its best to grow the school in all facets of life, it would still need the support of the government and corporate organisations to achieve that.
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