By Christopher Tetteh
Kintampo, (Bono East), May 21, GNA-The Kintampo Technical Institute in the Bono Region is on the verge of collapse due to poor infrastructure, authorities have said.
Now, most of the boarding students, including girls, sleep on the bare floor in the deplorable classrooms blocks because of the lack of dormitories.
Besides, the institute lacks an assembly hall, a canteen, a dining hall, a teachers’ quarters and workshops for practical studies.
The institute’s authorities therefore called on the government to come to their aid and to make the academic environment comfortable for both teachers and students.
Mr Abdul Hafiz, the School’s Accountant who made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Kintampo said the institute required a sick bay and classroom blocks.
He said it had converted a classroom block into a boys’ dormitory. However, could accommodate only 12 students, saying the girls’ dormitory too could house only 12 girls and therefore required expansion.
Established in 2002, Mr Hafiz said the institute had 620 students with 120 in the boarding house, saying many of the boys and girls slept on the bare floor in some of the classrooms.
The institute offers five major academic programmes of Wood Technology, Electrical Engineering, Fashion, Catering, Building and Construction with Home Management, Information and Communication Technology and Entrepreneurship as part of the non-examinable courses.
Mr Hafiz described the infrastructure development of the school as appalling, saying it had created heavy student congestion in most of the classrooms, saying if the situation remained it could lead to outbreak of diseases.
He said the challenges had also slowed down the school’s enrolment, impeding effective teaching and learning, saying many parents and guardian had also withdrawn their children and wards
Some of the boarding girls told the GNA that they were also battling with bedbugs and appealed for the expansion of the girls’ dormitory.
Commenting on the challenges, Mr Thomas Benarkuu, the Coordinator of the Bono East Regional chapter of the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition called on the government to save the institute from collapse.
He said TVET education remained essential to push industrialization and to also solve the teeming unemployment rate in the country and called for a framework to guide TVET education in the country.
Reacting to the congestion situation at the institute, Mr Patrick Amankona, a Health Promotion Officer at the Sunyani Municipal Directorate of Health said that could lead to outbreak of skin diseases and lung inflammations.
“In fact, those with weak immunity are vulnerable to deadly infections and allergies”, he stated, and called for urgent attention to tackle the institute’s congestion problem.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Benjamin Mensah