Regional News of Thursday, 30 March 2006

Source: GNA

Namong PTA put up girls' dormitory

Namong (Ash), March 30, GNA - The 246-million-cedi girls' dormitory built by the Namong Secondary/Technical School Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) would not be a white elephant if the acute water problem facing the school were not addressed.

Mr John Kofi Owusu-Ansah, the PTA chairman, said the school faced possible close down and all the 1,380 students sent home if the problem was not solved.

He was speaking at an emergency meeting of the association attended by some members of the board of governors, assembly members, opinion leaders and other stakeholders to find solution to the water crisis at Namong in the Offinso District on Tuesday. The girls' dormitory, which was formally inaugurated by the PTA chairman, was financed through an annual special levy of 60,000 cedis a parent for three years.

Mr Owusu-Ansah said the PTA would provide a machine-drilling borehole for the school at the cost of 100 million cedis and expressed the association's gratitude to Nana Amma Serwaa Nyarko, Queen mother of Offinso, for providing the school with a hand-dug well.

Mr Joseph Amponsah-Dwumfour, the headmaster of the school, announced that the school administration has put up a two-unit classroom and home economics blocks at the cost of 150 million cedis. He said the PTA has also built a boys' dormitory and bought a truck for the school at the cost of 160 million cedis.

Mr Amponsah-Dwumfour said the school faced serious staff accommodation problem and was not happy that a staff bungalow initiated in 1996 by the government has been abandoned in the bush. He advised the parents to pay their wards' fees promptly to enable the authorities offer satisfactory services to improve academic performance.

The Namong Secondary/Technical School was established in 1992 as a technical institution and has consistently maintained high disciplinary and academic performance but lacks vital infrastructure and other facilities.