Minister visits proposed SHS sites
The Education Minister, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, has led a team of officials from the Ministry and the Ghana Education Service (GES) on a two-day visit to undertake site inspection and verification of the proposed community senior high schools (SHS) in the Greater Accra Region.
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This is part of the preparation to actualise the promise President John Mahama made to construct 200 new community SHSs throughout the country.
In all, 50 district assemblies have been selected in the first batch across the country for the construction of new community senior high schools.
Three main criteria
They were chosen based on three main criteria. Firstly, the newly created districts; secondly, old districts that do not have SHS and lastly, districts with SHS but which have more students than they can accommodate.
The minister and her entourage visited the proposed sites in the Adentan Municipality, Kpone Katamanso District, Ashaiman Municipality, Ga East and Ga Central Districts.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang emphasised that although the projects were in the best interest of the country, it was important for all stakeholders to ensure that the lands allocated in all the 10 regions for the projects were free from all forms of litigation, hence the need for the inspection exercise.
At Frafraha in the Adentan Municipality, the minister and her team were taken round an 8.53 acre land demarcated for the Community SHS by the Municipal Director of Town and Country Planning, Mr H. A. P. Boham.
According to him, the site was earlier earmarked for the construction of a market. He stated that upon further consultation with the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, the traditional council, the queenmother, and other stakeholders, a consensus had been reached for the land to be used for the construction of the school, and the assembly had approved it.
Satisfaction
The minister expressed her satisfaction of the state of the site, saying the construction of the school was in the collective interest of all parties, hence the need for them to show the needed commitment for the project from start to finish. She indicated that the project, when completed, would serve a vital role since the municipality had no public SHS.
At the Kpone Katamanso District, the minister was met on arrival by the MP for Kpone Katamanso and the Volta Regional Minister, Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo, the District Chief Executive(DCE), Alhaji E.A. Tetteh, members of the Kpone Traditional Council and officials from the district assembly. The MP and the DCE expressed their enthusiasm for the proposed project in the district. “We are impatient to get the senior high school”, Mr Afotey Agbo stated.
The District Works Engineer, Mr Vincent Yeboah, led the team to inspect the 17.8 acre land at Kpone. He noted that all documents had been acquired, and that there was no litigation on the land earmarked for the project. He said the site was good because of its proximity to the affordable housing project,and sources of electricity and water.
Necessary due diligence
At Ashaiman, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Ibrahim Baidoo, assured the minister and her team that the assembly was currently doing the necessary due diligence to avoid all forms of litigation on the land. ”We are committed to ensuring that the vision comes to pass,” he said. According to the Municipal Engineer, Isaac Lamptey, the 12-acre land demarcated for the project is yet to be registered mainly for the SHS and the site plan fully acquired within two weeks.
The minister was accompanied by the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Isaac Vanderpuje; the Chief Director, Mr Enoch Cobbinah; the acting Director-General of GES, Mr Charles Aheto Tsegah and the Greater Accra Regional Director of GES, Mrs Elizabeth De-Souza and other officials from the Ministry of Education.