A dilapidated school block believed to have been constructed in 1902 by the Catholic mission, has collapsed on a Shama Junior High School student in the Western region.
The headmaster of the Shama Catholic School, Augustine Nyameke, said the incident occurred on Wednesday, June 8, 2022, at about 6:45 hours in the morning.
According to him, the JHS 2 students had reported to the school and were tidying up their environment when the weak block without notice collapsed and fell on the right hand of the student (name withheld).
“We were fortunate that when the wall collapsed it didn’t fall on the head of the student. Else, we wouldn’t have heard the good news. But the block landed on her limps; luckily it is not fractured,” Mr Nyameke told Angel News’ Nana Fynn.
According to him, the situation would have been worse if the incident occurred at a later hour, because then more students would have reported to the school.
The headmaster indicated however that authorities from the Assembly and District Education Office in the region have visited the school and directed that the students vacate the block to avoid future havoc.
Meanwhile, the District Assembly engineers have assessed the building and warned against its usage due to the weakness in structure but Nyameke revealed that the authorities have not made any efforts to address the challenge facing the school.
“There are very energetic and clumsy students among the population whose movements cause the building to vibrate and shake sometimes. Because we have no option, we are forced to manage what we have. If we continue it could lead to bad news,” he lamented.
The Assembly Member for the area, Isaiah Mensah, said since the school block was renovated in 2004 it has not been worked on again, hence its state.
He indicated that they are planning with the heads of the primary schools to run a shift system for the students until a permanent solution is found.
“The Management of the school and the heads are meeting to arrange for the students to run shift; the primary will go in the morning and the JHS will take their turn in the afternoon so that we can use the primary block.”
He appealed to the authorities to complete the Getfund project which has been abandoned because the government has failed to meet the financial demands of the contractor in charge.
According to him, the construction work was supposed to take up to three months to complete but it has taken more than the stated period.
“We plead with the government and the Regional Minister to engage the contractor and pay him every outstanding amount to complete the building construction.
“What we have here is a seven-unit classroom block. If the students move out of it, where are they going?” he quizzed.
Meanwhile, some of the students who witnessed the incident have shared their views.
“We are currently outside because we fear the building would collapse on us,” a male student said.
“We are pleading with the authorities to help solve the problem because should something happen to us, they would also be affected by it,” another female student said.
