Studying under trying conditions: Bono OLP SHS appeals for infrastructural support
The Our Lady of Providence Girls' (OLP) Senior High School (SHS) at Kwasibuorkrom in the Jaman South Municipality in Bono Region has marked its 2023 SRC Week and homecoming, with a call on the government and philanthropists to help improve infrastructural facilities in the school.
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The Headmistress of the OLP SHS, Sister Regeenamma Zangiti, who made the call, said the school was confronted with several challenges such as limited resources, particularly huge infrastructure deficit, resulting in congestion in classrooms.
She said the school deserved its fair share of infrastructure, explaining that it had achieved a lot with limited resources, an indication that when more resources were provided, it could perform much better.
Sister Zangiti said though the school had become a household name in the country, the level of its development was not the best.
Challenges
A visit to the school revealed a kitchen in a poor state which compelled caterers to prepare food in an open space, thus exposing prepared food to insects and dust.
It was disclosed that when it rained, the entire kitchen got submerged because the facility had a poor drainage system that prevented water from flowing out.
It was noticed that the students also took meals in an abandoned dining hall facility, which posed a number of health challenges because the meals were taken in a dusty environment.
The abandoned project, which is about 80 per cent complete, was started in 2016 but had been left uncompleted.
Furthermore, there is a huge staff accommodation deficit in the school, as only eight out of the 115 staff are on campus.
The situation, according to the headmistress, made it very difficult to maintain discipline among the students and attend to emergencies, when the need arose.
Access roads
Again, the school lacks access roads and is has challenges with unreliable water supply.
Because of the intermittent water supply on campus, students are compelled to wake up at dawn to compete with members of a nearby community for water.
Another major challenge facing the school is the lack of a bus to convey students and staff to and from programmes and educational trips, the school authorities said.
The school is compelled to rely on sister schools for a bus or go by public transport, when there was the need to travel with a large number of students.
Achievement
Despite the challenges, Sister Zangiti said the category "A" ranked second cycle school had chalked up remarkable academic feat.
She said the school was ranked third national best in the 2022 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).
Sister Zangiti said the school was adjudged the best school in the country when the averages for the 2020 and 2021 WASSCE results were analysed.
In the area of non-academic activities, she said the school's Cadet Band was the only one from the middle zone to have qualified for the National Cadet Band Competition to be held in Accra this month, after beating all its competitors at the regional and zonal levels.
Appeal
Sister Zangiti appealed for the construction of a 12-unit classroom block to deal with the increasing number of students.
She said the increasing number of students had become a worry for management, as classrooms were congested, a situation that was negatively affecting teaching and learning.
She also said the issue of travelling with public transport put a lot of financial stress on management and posed danger to the lives of students.
Sister Zangiti, therefore, appealed to old students of the school to take a centre stage in the smooth running of the institution to move it to greater heights.
She said the SRC Week and homecoming event was also to raise funds to finance projects, particularly the school's entrance construction to ensure proper security to safeguard the students.
She added that the school had started the construction of an ultra-modern sickbay, which was expected to be completed by the end of the year to deal with all the health needs of the students.
The President of the Students’ Representative Council, Gertrude Asomah Osei, told the Daily Graphic that she found it sad that the school had to beg for a bus or use public transport, when more than 25 students or teachers were travelling.
She explained that the school had only one 25-seater minibus serving several purposes, thus attracting the name; "cargo bus”.
She, therefore, appealed to the public to come to the aid of the school to help address the challenges confronting the school.
History
The OLP Girls’ SHS was established on November 19, 1989, through the instrumentality of the late Bishop James Kwadwo Owusu, together with the religious community of Sisters of Divine Providence.
The school, which started with 14 students in a parish church, now boast of 1,210 students and a staff population of 115.
A rented house in the community was then used as a hostel facility. In 1990, Bishop Owusu invited another batch of congregation of divine providence to lead the school.
Sister Zangiti, took over as the headmistress in 2014 at the time it was ranked in category “C”.
Govt's commitment
Responding to some of the challenges confronting the school, the Jaman South Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Andrews Bediako, said the government was committed to resolving challenges facing the school and other schools across the country.
He explained that the contractor working on the school's dining hall project encountered some issues with his bank, which made it difficult for him to have access to his funds to complete the project.
The MCE, who is a former teacher of the school, said he was considering the termination of the contract and repackaging it for a different contractor.
On the school's bus, Mr Bediako explained that the school had been selected to benefit from the next batch of buses to be released to SHSs across the country.
He explained that the school's roads had been included in the construction of the 1.5-kilometre Drobo-Kwasibuokrom road.
Focus
The President of the Catholic Bishops Conference, Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, said the school was established with the focus of training young girls to overcome their vulnerabilities in the society.
He said educating girls or concentrating on the development of girls was crucial, explaining that recently, the church had concentrated on the establishment of girls schools across the country.
Most Rev. Gyamfi, who is also the Bishop of the Sunyani Diocese of the Catholic Church, said the success of the school was as a result of hard work and discipline among teachers and students.
However, he said he was unhappy about an attempt by chiefs in the area to demand extra money from the church, because the school had been sited on their land.
Most Rev. Gyamfi said the continual demand from the chiefs was killing the spirit of the church to invest in the area or expand the school and called for unity between the church and the chiefs for the progress of the school.
Chief’s response
Responding to the bishop's concerns, the Omanhene of the Mpuasu-Japekrom Traditional Area, Okatakyie Amoa Aturu Nkonkonkyia II, said the chiefs were not interested in the school's land, after their ancestors had given it out to the church.
He said they had no authority to re-sell the land to the church or the school, explaining that chiefs in the area were not even aware of such an issue.
Okatakyie Nkonkonkyia urged the church to make available the said letter demanding extra money from the church to enable him to take action.
He said the Catholic Church had contributed immensely to the development of the area, particularly in the establishment of schools and did not deserve such treatment and frustrations.
Okatakyie Nkonkonkyia said although the government had implemented the Free SHS policy, he appealed to parents to share the responsibility of the education of their children with the government.
He said the policy did not mean that parents should not contribute to their children's education, and therefore urged them to play active role in the education of their children.
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