GEOTECH supports Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping with training tools

The Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping (GSSM) has received assorted training equipment amounting to over One Hundred Thousand Cedis (GH¢ 100,000.00) from GEOTECH Systems Limited.

The items donated include Sokkia Total Station CX 105, aluminium measuring rod, drawing boards, drawing protractors, levelling staff, camping tents, field compass, Auto level among others.

The gesture is to mark Global Surveyors day slated for Saturday 21st March 2020.

GEOTECH SYSTEMS LIMITED is an indigenous surveying firm based in Accra with specialization in digital surveying that has several of its employees from the school.

Over the years, the Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping has been appealing to such benevolent organizations to support it with provision of equipment to meet the international training standards it aspires to attain.

Presenting the items on behalf of GEOTECH Group, the Managing Director of the firm who is also the Financial Secretary of the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana (LISAG), Vice Chair of Africa Regional Network of International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and Country Representative of International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS), Mr. Stephen Djaba, advised the authorities of the school to take good care of the tools and equipment and put them to the best of use.

He also entreated the school to keep the standards that have made the school one of the premium surveying and mapping institutions in the sub-region and thereby help in getting rid of the unqualified surveyors in the industry whose work have partly contributed to the numerous land disputes in the country.

Mr. Djaba also indicated the readiness of GEOTECH Group and other surveying firms in the country to partner the school to offer the best practical training in the advent of digitization and modernisation of surveying in Ghana.

The Deputy Executive Secretary in charge of Corporate Services at The Lands Commission, Jones Ofori-Boadu who received the equipment was grateful.

“I want to say a big thank you to Geotec System for this gesture of donation to The Lands Commission, for that matter, The Ghana School of Surveying and Mapping”.

He said, the School trains students in two categories: In Certificate and the HND, “and this is Technical Institution which does a lot of practical works when it comes to geometric engineering and therefore, this presentation of equipment that has been done will go a long way to enhance teaching and learning”.

According to him, the School was actually in need of these equipment to train the students.

“We shall take good care of them and make sure that, we use them effectively and efficiently for the training in the school but we need more from other benevolent bodies and individuals, Mr. Ofori-Boadu pleaded.

The Ghana Survey School was established in 1921 and was known as the Gold Coast Survey School before Ghana attained independence in 1957.

The establishment of the School was in response to the urgent need to train indigenes at the middle-level manpower to help in the preparation of cadastral plans and maps, which is the bedrock for the socio-economic development of any country.

It is a fact that nearly all the senior professional surveyors in the country today are all former students of the Ghana Survey School / Gold Coast Survey School.

It is also on record that until recently the School has also trained students from the West African sub-region. However, over the years, supports from central government have been limited thereby adversely affecting the training equipment of the school as well as infrastructure in general.

The school has therefore been appealing to corporate organizations, especially those in the surveying and mapping industry to come to their aid.

Story By: Edzorna Francis Mensah