By Godfred A. Polkuu
Zuarungu (U/E), Feb 27, GNA – The Principal of the Nursing and Midwifery Training College at Zuarungu, in the Bolgatanga East District in the Upper East Region, Mr Michael Yidana Mantamia, has expressed gratitude to the Government for major infrastructure projects in the College.
He said the College started in 2006 with 50 students, three tutors and a classroom, “Today, we have three big blocks with six classrooms, ten offices and two skills laboratories fitted with state-of-the-art equipment for learning.
“We started without a hostel, today we have two hostels that accommodate up to 254 students,” Mr Mantamia said at the matriculation ceremony of first-year students of the College.
He said that even though most of the achievements were through prudent use of Internally Generated Funds (IGF), “We thank Government of Ghana for its support so far over the years.”
He said government, through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, built and completed a hostel facility, which accommodated 254 first-year students, while the rest of the students’ rented rooms around the College.
“The second hostel we have is from GETFund, and that has been completed. So on behalf of the Advisory Board, we are grateful to the Government of Ghana, the Regional Coordinating Council, and the MP for Bolgatanga East Constituency.”
“We are really very happy for the hostel,” he said, adding that apart from the completed hostel facility, there were two major projects, a multi-purpose hall and one-storey lecturer hall block for the College even though work on that had stalled.
Mr Mantamia appealed to government to complete the two stalled projects of the College to facilitate academic activities.
He further called for Public Private Partnership (PPP) to construct hostel facilities for the student population of 722, saying “Government cannot do everything, we all have to put our hands on deck to support. So PPP is approved by the Board of this College, and we encourage partners to come in.”
He said management of the College had taken up the initiative to construct a two-storey building to accommodate skills laboratory for midwifery, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) laboratory and library.
He acknowledged the efforts of the Advisory Board towards the construction of the project and said, “We have fought a good fight, we have gotten to our limit and would want to appeal to benevolent organizations and individuals to come and help us construct the two-storey block.
“We need cement, iron rods, roofing sheets, nails, and cash donations. I want to assure potential donors that all contributions would be used for the intended purpose, and properly accounted for,” Mr Mantamia said.
Tarana John Bosco Atanga, the Linguist of the Zuarungu Chief, assured Management of the College that the Palace was ready to release land for more infrastructure development, and was hopeful that the cordial relationship between the College and the Palace would continue to grow.
GNA