The lack of dining hall structure at the Antoa Senior School (SHS) in the Kwabre East District in the Ashanti Region has compelled authorities to convert an uncompleted assembly hall into a dining hall.
The situation often gets worse during the rainy season as authorities find it difficult to convey food prepared from the kitchen to the improvised dining hall, forcing students to sometimes eat in their dormitories.
The Antoa Senior High School (SHS) with over one thousand student population is one of the six Senior High Schools within the Municipality.
Authorities of the school have also lamented the poor nature of classroom blocks and other educational facilities that are not conducive for teaching and learning.
School authorities raised the concerns when stakeholders including the Member of Parliament for the Kwabre East Constituency toured Senior High Schools in the area.
Headteacher for the Antoa SHS, Joseph Kwaku Asamoah explained that the nature of classroom blocks and the unavailability of key facilities in the school is affecting the smooth progress of academic activities.
“Currently, one of our pressing challenges is a dining hall complex. We don’t have a dining hall complex. So any time it rains, we have a problem of even conveying the food from the kitchen to where the students eat, that is the uncompleted assembly hall and that is a big challenge for us. Another challenge is classroom facilities, though the buildings are there, many of them have not been plastered and they don’t have doors and louver blades. And we know that a very good environment celebrates learning. So the classroom is our biggest concern,” he lamented
Mr. Kwaku Asamoah also called for intensified public education against student absenteeism.
According to him, some students overstay their days in the house whenever school reopen.
He is thus calling for a mass public education in churches, communities and in the media space to sensitize parents on the effects of absenteeism and the need to impress their wards to return to school as soon as school reopens.
Kwabre East MP, stakeholders tour SHSs
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Kwabre East Constituency, Francisca Oteng Mensah led a delegation including the Municipal Director for Education in the area and other stakeholders to embark on a three-day tour to the six Senior High Schools in the area.
The visit was to afford them the opportunity to have first-hand information regarding challenges the schools were faced with and to enable them to channel those concerns to the appropriate institutions for redress.
The delegation visited the SIMMS, Kofi Agyei and Gyaman Pensan Senior High Schools as well as Ntonso Girls, Adawomase and Antoa Senior High Schools all in the Kwabre East Municipality.
In each school, the delegation met and interacted with teaching and non-teaching staff to know the challenges facing their respective schools before going ahead to engage the students in a pep talk.
They also encouraged them to desist from indulging in vices that have negative tendencies on their future.
“My expectations have been fully met. In fact there are some that I even got surprised. We visited the schools and we also had the opportunity to even tour some parts of the schools and all that. Some of the places that we visited, we saw that some of the facilities are in a very bad state that need urgent support from the Government. Some will also need urgent support from the municipal Assembly. Like I said, we took their concerns and we will forward them to the appropriate authority as soon as we can and push that,” she assured.
The MP also expressed worry over the grading system of the schools within the area following consistent complains from teachers throughout the schools she toured with members of the delegation.
According to her, all the six schools within the area either fall in the grade C or D schools which she said affects the demeanour of the students and called for something to be done about such situation.
Included in the delegation was a popular movie maker with Kumawood, Kwadwo Nkansah, popularly known in showbiz as Lilwin.
He was part of the tour to encourage the students to study hard and become responsible citizens in future.
The delegation also presented books and other educational materials to students on the double track system at all the schools it visited.