General News of Saturday, 23 September 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-09-23
The state of the roads is deplorable
The deplorable nature of roads in Adaklu in the Volta Region, is affecting enrollment in Adaklu Senior High School, under the implementation of government’s free senior high school policy.
Unlike schools in most developed areas where the first batch beneficiary students of the free Senior High School Policy have inundated their premises yearning to be enrolled, Adaklu Senior High School seems to have recorded low turnout in admissions.
Citi News has gathered that, out of about 300 students that were posted, only 100 of them formalized their postings as at Wednesday 20th September, a situation the District Director of Education,Madam Cynthia Gbadago, expressed concern about.
The District Director, who could not immediately tell the factors that account for the low turnout, discounted poor infrastructure as a reason for the low patronage. She explained that the school is well-equipped and meets requirements for any standard second cycle institution.
However, further checks by Citi News, revealed that most parents are unwilling to accept postings to the school due to the bad road network in the area.
Some parents who spoke to Citi News said although the school is in the District Capital, Waya, its inaccessibility is the major reason why they are adamant in sending their wards there.
“Some communities are far from Waya, but our roads are very bad here. So we don’t have vehicles plying on these roads. Our wards cannot attend this school without a reliable transport system” a parent told Citi News.
The school is the oldest second cycle institution in the area, serving all 26 communities in the district, as well as students across the country. It has a current enrollment of about 400 students.
The district was also allocated the E-Block Community Senior High School under the erstwhile Mahama administration; a project which has since the inception of the new government stopped.
The state of the roads, the Member of Parliament for the Area, Kwame Agbodza, admitted was deplorable. He said although most of the roads were awarded for construction under the feeder roads in the previous government, a directive from the new government has asked that those projects be suspended till further notice.
He is therefore entreating the new government to show commitment towards the completion of the roads.
