General News of Tuesday, 17 October 2017
Source: citifmonline.com
2017-10-17
File photo: Kwabenya Community SHS
The Kwabenya Community Day Senior High School has been without electricity since 2016, when it was commissioned by the previous John Mahama government.
This is as a result of a GH¢ 41,000 debt reportedly left behind by the contractors who put up the school.
The Headmistress of the School, Elizabeth Sam, who revealed this when members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education visited the school on Monday, said some staff of the school are forced to carry out some administrative duties in her house as a result of the situation.
“For now, the school has no light. Since the school was handed over to us, he hasn’t paid any bill as yet so it got to a time, the high cost of the electricity bill prompted the Electricity Company of Ghana to come and disconnect us. So he hasn’t paid any bill from the time we came here. The ICT lab, we can’t use it… Most of the administrative work is done in my home,” Mrs. Sam said.
She also decried the inadequate furniture in the school, noting that it had compelled some first-year students to bring personal plastic chairs from their respective homes.
The Chairman of the Committee, Siaka Stevens, said the committee will be working to address some of the challenges raised by the school.
He said it was preparing a report to be submitted to the floor of parliament for a debate and a policy direction.
He added that, the committee will engage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to discuss the possibility of reconnecting the school to the national grid, while making efforts to reach the contractor to impress on him to pay the GH¢41,000 debt.
The Kwabenya Community Day SHS is among about 50 schools that were commissioned under the previous government’s special program to build 200 new community day Senior High Schools.
The previous government could not complete construction of all the promised 200 schools before it left office in January 2017.
