OSTECH cries for help

Headmistress of Oguaa Senior High Technical School (OSTECH) in Cape Coast, Mrs. Anastasia Thompford Okyere, has appealed to government to, as a matter of urgency, come to the aid of the school to help facilitate effective teaching and learning.

According to her, since OSTECH became a boarding school, it has been burdened with a lot of challenges.

She mentioned that the school lacked most of the pre-requisites of a boarding school.

She went on to add that even though the school is expected to compete with other big schools in the area in terms of academics, all the facilities needed to ensure effective teaching and learning were non-existent.

She stated that there was no administration block for the school. This situation, she explained, has compelled school authorities to convert some classroom blocks into offices to run the school.

Mrs. Thonpford Okyere also mentioned the lack of a library block, assembly hall, dining hall and kitchen as well as an Information Communication Technology (ICT) and Science Laboratory as some of the problems that the school was grappling with.

The headmistress made these known during the 25th anniversary and fifth speech and prize giving day of the school in Cape Coast over the weekend.

She also mentioned lack of an infirmary or sick bay, storm drains to stop perennial floods in the school during the raining season, sports field, tarred road network in the school and polytanks for water storage among others as some challenges facing the school.

“It will surprise you to know that the school cannot boast of a single accommodation for the over a hundred staff in the school. We have been compelled to convert some trunk rooms of the only dormitory to masters’ quarters to take care of the students,” she revealed.

She therefore appealed for the speedy completion of the two storey girls’ dormitory to help ease accommodation which will go a long way to improve the result of the school.

She intimated that although government was undertaking numerous projects in the school including the construction of classroom blocks, two storey boys’ dormitory block and streetlights to illuminate the campus, it was prudent for urgent attention to be given to their above needs to enhance academic work.

Mrs. Okyere stated that the school performed poorly in last year’s West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), adding that management was working hard to improve upon the quality of grades.

Dean of the Faculty of Art at the University of Cape Coast (UCC), Prof. Dora F. Edu-Buandoh, who was the special guest of honour, pointed out that good grades alone do not make an educated person and called for the need for the country to provide quality education by ensuring that the curriculum, facilities, equipment and the needed human resources are provided for effective teaching and learning.

She called for a collaborative effort to ensure that the needed facilities, equipment and other resources needed for the effective running of OSTECH are made available and effectively monitored to ensure that the next 25 years of the school will be worth celebrating.

Central Regional Minister, Mr. Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, pledged government’s support to continue to support the school and expressed the hope that the fact that the school finds itself in the midst of some of the best schools in the country will motivate them to work harder for academic excellence.