Tamale, Dec. 20, GNA - Rapists and thieves are targeting female students of the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO), which impacts negatively on academic work, Alhaji Tahiru I. Mohama, Headmaster of the=

school has complained. He said wire mesh fence at some parts of the school, was not giving adequate protection to students especially the females as outsiders pass through with impunity.

He has, however, appealed to the GETFund to consider providing the school with a fence wall to protect the students from rapists and other criminals to bring sanity to the campus to enhance teaching and learning.

Alhaji Mahama expressed the concern on Saturday at the 18th Speech and Prize giving day of the school meant to recognize certain individuals who had contributed greatly to the development of the school and to reward hardworking and deserving students and staff for dedication to duty. The programme was on the theme: Discipline, a prerequisite for quali= ty education delivery and national development" and was also meant to relate=

the success and failure stories of TAMASCO to see how best stakeholders would collectively support the school to continue to give quality educati= on to people of the north and the entire country. Alhaji Mahama said "The girls' domitories needed a complete wall to replace the existing wire fence, which does not give much protection to female students. "Sometimes rapists and thieves trample on the broken fence to attack=

these vulnerable girls." He said apart from the fence wall, the school needed a lot of infrastructure development to befit its status as a premier secondary sch= ool in the three northern regions.

Alhaji Mahama said most classrooms at the western part of the school had no lights thus hampering teaching and learning while the entire school had no streets lights, which had negative effects on campus life.

He also appealed for the provision of funds to build a girl's dormitory to able school authorities to increase female intake from the current 481 out of a total population of 1,881 to an appreciable number.

Other areas that needed urgent attention included renovation of staf= f bungalows, rehabilitation of toilets and bathrooms in the school and the construction of the fence wall to protect the school's land from illegal developers. On discipline, Alhaji Mahama appealed to parents and guardians to corporate with school management to instill discipline on campus to enhan= ce academic work.

Mr. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister of Communications, assured school management of government preparedness to equip academic institutions of I= CT facilities and that GETFund would also continue to embark on infrastructu= re development. He said his ministry was exploring ways of establishing an ICT centr= e of excellence in Northern, Upper East, Western and Volta Regions next yea= r to improve the use of ICT. The Minister pledged to give GH¢1,000 to any student in the school= who would score aggregate six in West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and would also liaise with the GETFund to ensure th= at some of the problems facing TAMASCO were addressed. Mr. Iddrisu said government would not renege on its promise of improving education in the country and announced that the school feeding programme would be extended to secondary schools to improve the nutrition= al status of students. Mr. Stephen Sumani Nayina, Northern Regional Minister, in speech rea= d on his behalf, deplored parents' assaulting teachers and the general indiscipline on campus and stressed the need for behaviour change to enha= nce academic work. 20 Dec.09