Special School Cries For Bus

THE GARDEN City Special School for the intellectually disabled at Asokore Mampong in Kumasi is being faced with several problems; key among them is the lack of vehicles.

Sharing the school’s predicaments with DAILY GUIDE in an interview, Dr. Roselyn Agyapong Frimpomaa, headmistress of the school, said four out of the five vehicles of the school had broken down, leaving the school, with a student population of 186, to use one vehicle for their activities.

This deplorable situation, she lamented, was making running of the school very difficult as authorities of the institution found it almost impossible to transport non-resident students from vantage parts of Kumasi to classes on a daily basis as it was being done in the past.

The headmistress made this known when Anita Hotel at Ejisu organized this year’s annual carols for pupils of the school. The inmates of the school were served with assorted food and soft drinks to usher them into the Christmas season.

Dr. Agyapong Frimpomaa said the school also faced some difficulties when they had to transport sick inmates to the hospital for treatment due to the lack of vehicles, therefore calling on government to help.

She said the school owed the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) GH¢ 24,000 due to the nonpayment of their bills. However the Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council recently paid GH¢ 9,000 of the debt after the ECG threatened to disconnect their power supply.

Dr. Agyapong Frimpomaa also bemoaned that GH¢1.80pesewas that government paid for a three-square meal for each student a day was woefully insignificant.

The headmistress commended the management of Anita Hotel for their constant help to the school, saying that the benevolence of such institutions was what kept the school going.

Executive Director for Anita Hotel, Janet Sefa Boakye said aside the food which was given to the students, medical doctors were brought to the school earlier in the day to screen the eyes of the students free of charge.

She said Anita Hotel has decided to organize the programme annually in order to put smiles back on the faces of the students, tasking other institutions to emulate their good example.