St Charles Minor Seminary SHS dormitory block cries for renovation

Authorities of St Charles Minor Seminary and Senior High School (SHS) in Tamale are still struggling to provide decent accommodation for students of the school after fire destroyed the school's two-storey dormitory block one-and-half years ago.

The school was left with only two rooms, as dormitories for the entire student population were destroyed after the incident.

This has compelled the school’s authorities to convert some classroom blocks into dormitories as a temporary measure to house the current student population of about 500.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic during the school’s 65th anniversary celebration, the Headmaster of the school, Mr Polycarp Kuusokub Beyelle, expressed concern about the situation, noting that all efforts to get authorities and benevolent organisations to renovate the damaged dormitory block had not yielded any result.

He said the students were packed into the few existing dormitories, indicating that the situation affected enrolment this academic year, as the school was able to enrol only 150 students.

“Since the incident happened in March last year, I have written to the Ghana Education Trust Fund GETFund and other authorities but nothing has been done about it, although some officials came from the head office to inspect and make estimates of the cost involved.

“So far, it is only the old boys who have taken it upon themselves to renovate the few dormitories that are housing the students” he said.

He, therefore, appealed to the government and benevolent organisations to assist the school to provide decent accommodation for the students to help improve on academic activities in the school.

Anniversary

The St Charles Minor Seminary and SHS were established in 1953 as a Catholic Missionary school in the Upper East Region, and later relocated to Tamale.

With a student population of 500, the school currently offers secular programmes in addition to the religious programmes.

The celebration offered the authorities the opportunity to speak about the achievements and challenges of the school, reunite old students, while students who had excelled in the various field of study were honoured.
 
Addressing the ceremony, Mr Beyelle said in spite of the infrastructural challenges the school was performing well in academic and extra-curricular activities, stating that “Over the years the school has recorded 100 per cent pass in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE)”.

He encouraged the students to study hard in spite of the challenges to enable them to excel in the their examination and become responsible leaders in the future.

Indiscipline

Speaking on indiscipline, the Vicar General of the Tamale Catholic Archdiocese, Very Reverend Father Matthew Yitiereh, who is the Governing Board Chairman of the school, advised the students against acts of gross indiscipline such as use of hard drugs, occultism, stealing, homosexuality, among other vices, stating that students who would be found culpable would be made to face the full rigors of the law.

While advising the students to be disciplined and hardworking, he appealed to the government to provide the needed infrastructure for the school to help improve on academic activities in the school.

Master Amidu Seidu Dauda, a former student of the school who excelled in this year’s WASSCE with aggregate nine, was rewarded with a laptop computer.