Community prevents school from building fence wall

Tamale, March 25, GNA - The Kukuo community, a suburb of Tamale, is resisting any attempt by authorities of the Ghana Secondary School (GHANASCO) to build a fence wall to protect the school's land from further encroachment by the community.

Community members are demanding eight pieces of plot around the headmaster's bungalow and the girls' dormitory areas before the school authorities could go ahead with the fencing. Alhaji Tahiru Abdul-Raham Mahama, the Headmaster of the school, said this on Saturday during the school's annual Parent, Teacher Association meeting in Tamale.

Alhaji Mahama said the school had a total land space of about 366 acres clearly demarcated but some members of the Kukuo community are claiming ownership of the undeveloped land and are resisting any attempt by the school to protect the property. He said TAYSEC, a construction firm, is helping the school with about 85 million cedis to fence the land area but are facing resistance from the community and called on authorities to intervene to solve the issue amicably.

The Headmaster said though the chief of the community had given the "Go ahead" the youth are bend on vandalizing the wall should school authorities go ahead with the fencing with releasing the eight pieces of plots.

He said that the eight plots the community is demanding is right in the middle of the school and expressed fear that social vices would increase in the school if such lands should remain in private hands.

Alhaji Mahama expressed concern about the general indiscipline within the student body leading to the indefinite suspension of some students and advised parents to help instil discipline in students. The headmaster said past students owe the school 1.5 billion cedis and are not likely to pay and appealed to parents to always play their roles as parents and pay their wards school fees promptly.

He appealed to the PTA to help the school build a place of convenience for students saying that the Kukuo community had hijacked the only Kumasi ventilated Improved Pit (KVIP) for the students. Mr Mohammed Alhassan Adam, PTA chairman, stressed the importance for the involvement of parents in schools activities and expressed the hope that the GHANASCO PTA would help the school to achieve academic excellence by accepting to pay their dues promptly.

He expressed concern about the alarming rate of extra classes and that a 3-member committee had been set to review the current mode and to make recommendations to benefit all students in the school.