Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/R)-Ghana, May 10, GNA – Madam Rosemary Appiah, the Headmistress of Dormaa M/A Experimental Model Junior High School, has appealed for immediate support to address the school’s numerous challenges.
She said the Assembly Hall, Staff Common Room and the Headmistress’ Office were in deplorable condition, which had compelled teachers to sit under trees during non-teaching hours to do other related duties.
Madam Appiah said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) over factors impeding the progress of the school at Dormaa-Ahenkro in the Dormaa Central Municipality of Bono Region.
She lamented that the situation had been aggravated due to the inadequate capitation grant the school received last year.
“Last year the school received just GhC195.00 for capitation grant, describing it as very insignificant to do any serious and meaningful renovation work,” she said.
Madam Appiah said since her assumption of office in 2020, she had only received GhC256.00 and GhC560.00 as base grants, which had been used for the purchase of door locks and cement to do some repair works.
She said the unreliability of the allocation and disbursement of the capitation grant had forced the school to adopt creative ways to institute its own feeding arrangements by employing and paying two caterers to produce quality meals once a day for the students.
With the approval of the Parents Teacher Association (PTA) students were being levied GhC4.00 daily to pay for the meals, she said, adding that guardians of students who could not afford were asked to arrange for a convenient way of payment to ensure their wards were also served.
“In trying to manage and sustain the school’s feeding plan, the teachers and I sometimes do personal sacrifices and sometimes run into debts.”
On security, the Headmistress revealed that during the last term thieves broke into the school and stole five ceiling fans, which was reported to the police for investigation and possible arrest and prosecution.
Some recalcitrant teenage boys living nearby the school had been coming on weekends to trap and harvest fish from the school’s fishpond.
She said those boys were depleting the pond of stock meant for feeding the students and with some being sold to the public for internal revenue generation to run the school.
Madam Appiah mentioned other pressing needs as supply of mono desks to ensure a convenient sitting arrangements for students and, therefore, appealed to individuals and corporate organisations to support the school with finances and logistics to create a conducive environment for teaching and learning.
