Tamale, March 5, GNA - Almost all the Senior High Schools (SHS) in the Tamale Metropolis are unprepared to admit fresh students for the 2010/2011 academic year as a result of inadequate classrooms and dormitory accommodation.

This became clear when the GNA interviewed authorities and some students of the various Senior High schools in the Metropolis on Thursday who admitted that their classrooms and dormitories were overcrowded and not in a position to take in any more fresh students. Alhaji Tahiru Mahama, the Headmaster of Tamale Senior High School, said the school would not be able to admit fresh students for the 2010/2011 academic year if adequate classrooms and dormitory accommodation were not provided.

He said the government had up to September to provide the necessary infrastructure that would enable the school to admit fresh students. "Until government tells us otherwise, we school authorities cannot say anything". Alhaji Mahama said the school, which was established in 1951, now has a student population of 1,875 with 36 classrooms accommodating an average of 55 students per classroom.

He said somewhere last year school authorities were submitted with forms to state the number of students they could admit, adding that the school authorities were yet to discuss the issue with the Regional Director of Education after which they would communicate to their superiors in Accra. Master Ziblim Yakubu, the Senior Prefect of the school, told the He was of the opinion that the four-year system had disrupted the educational system making some of the students disappointed at the system. "It is just a waste of our time because the first year was virtually wasted for nothing because we have the impression there is time". Master Yakubu said some of the students do not even have classrooms and had resorted to the use of the science laboratory as classrooms and wondered where the incoming ones would be.

Imoro Yazid, a Form Two student, said the incoming students might sit under trees to learn.

At the Tamale Girls Senior High a Form Two student, Abdul-Aziz Rabiatu, said she was ready for the system but complained of inadequate accommodation to contain the students.

"Currently, there are about 90-107 in a classroom", and queried where the incoming students would be accommodated. The students said there could be an outbreak of ceribro-spinal meningitis (CSM) because they are congested in their dormitories. Authorities of the school refused to speak to the GNA with the excuse that they had been directed not to speak to the media. At the Ghana Senior High (GHANASCO), the school is not ready to admit new students for the next academic year because they do not have enough classrooms.

Although the school authorities were tight-lipped on the issue a student, Yentra Ruth, said in the first year of the four-year SHS, they had not learnt anything from their electives and so the remaining two years would give them the opportunity to learn their electives well.