Work is underway on the upgrading of the Koase Senior High and Technical School in the Wenchi Municipality into a model school.
As part of the upgrade, more than ¢41 Million is being spent on facilities including a dining hall and kitchen, an Assembly hall, a Science block and teachers’ accommodation.
Speaking at the sod-cutting ceremony, MP for Wenchi and Minister of Planning, Prof. George Baffour, described the intervention as the single largest investment in the Education sector in the Wenchi Municipality and urged the Consultant and Contractors on the project to make quality their watchword. John Sam-Arthur reports.
Koase Senior High and Technical School, one of the deprived schools in the Wenchi Municipality was established in the late 1960s as a JSS. In 1991, it was transformed into a Senior High School.
The introduction of the Free SHS has seen its population balloon from 91 to 1,100 Students, bringing into sharp focus the infrastructural challenges confronting the School. All facilities are overstretched to the extent that the library has been converted into a classroom.
But thanks to serious lobbying by the Headmistress and the MP for Wenchi and other stakeholders, the School’s fortunes are set to improve after it was selected for upgrading under the Model School Concept. Two Contracting firms have already begun work building eight projects in all. These are an Assembly Hall, A Dining Hall and kitchen, a two-storey teachers block of flats and a two-story boys dormitory.
Also, in the works are a Girls Dormitory block, a Science Block, a Library and an Administration block. A sod-cutting ceremony has consequently been held to officially signal the start of the project valued at just over 41 million Ghana Cedis and expected to be completed in ten months. Speaking at the ceremony the Headmistress of Koase High and Technical School, Nancy Arthur, welcomed the Model School Project saying it will give Teaching and learning a much-needed boost and crowns a determined effort to improve conditions in the School.
The Minister for Planning and MP for Wenchi, Prof. George Gyan Baffour, said the model school concept under which distressed schools in the Districts are selected for provision of vital infrastructure was first introduced by President John Kufour. He said it has now been reintroduced by the current Government in the wake of the free SHS Programme which has resulted in a dire need for expansion of high school infrastructure.
