Nalerigu (NR), July 17, GNA - The Headmaster of the Nalerigu Senior High School (NASS) in the East Mamprusi District, Mr. S.B. Awari, has called on the government to pay urgent attention to the school to ensure that it befitted its status of providing quality education to students.

He said the government's purpose of upgrading the School into a model school in the district would be defeated if immediate and urgent measures were not taken to improve infrastructure development there. Mr Awari told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Gamabaga on Thursday that the school was in a deplorable state particularly the Science Centre and that it needed urgent rehabilitation to improve the study of science and technology. He said though the school had been tagged as a model school in the district it had not seen any meaningful face-lift as compared to its sister model schools in other districts of the country.

Mr Awari said despite the poor infrastructure development in the school, it performed well academically over the past few years and expressed the hope that if proper attention was given to it there would be further improvement. He said other problems the school faced included luck of transportation for both students and staff, a dining hall, classroom block for Home Economics, a block for practical work and an Assembly Hall for the increased student intake.

The headmaster appealed to the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to assist the school by adopting and completing an abandoned dinning hall complex project started in the Acheampong regime. He said another computer laboratory block awarded for contract in 2005 and a girls' dormitory which were both GETFund projects had been abandoned at the foundation stages adding that they should be given the necessary attention. Mr Awari also appealed to all old students of the school, Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and philanthropists to come to the aid of the school to ensure that its facilities were improved. He said the school had never seen any major renovation since its establishment in 1965 as a Middle School, then to a Training College and to its current status with a student population of 1,300.

Mr Awari commended the East Mamprusi District Assembly and the Member of Parliament for the area, Hajia Alima Mahama, for constantly supporting the school and urged them not to relent in their efforts to help improve standards there. Mr Awari appealed for funds and materials to help the school organize its Speech and Prize Giving Day in October this year and thanked the Gambaga office of SSNIT, the East Mamprusi Community Bank, Unimax McMillan Publishers and PARID, a local NGO for donating cash and assorted items in support of the function.