From Richard Attenkah
Isaac Ashai Odamtten, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive, has hinted that plans are far advanced for the Assembly to start fencing all public schools within the Tema Metropolitan area to ward off encroachers.
“It is refreshing to know that the Works Department of the Assembly has concluded its audit of all public school lands, and very soon, the Assembly, together with other partners, will commence the much-awaited fencing of all public schools in Tema, which will arrest the pervasive encroachment of school lands,” he disclosed. Ibrahim Odamtten dropped the hint when he cut the sod for the construction of a two-storey building, dubbed Industrial Basic School Project (IBSP), at the Oninku Cluster of Schools at Tema Community One.
The project, which is being funded by the World Bank at a cost of US$300,000, is an innovation the TMA is rolling out to help solve the infrastructural challenges facing the educational sector in the Tema Metropolis. Ashai Odamtten said that the IBSP is a two-storey educational complex that contains 12 classrooms and other ancillary facilities such as information communication technology (ICT) laboratories, library, sick bay and staff common room.
He revealed that the structure has adjourning facilities for recreation, such as a basket ball court, table tennis, and a volley ball pitch, which will go a long way to unearth the God-given talents the school children have been blessed with. According to him, the IBSP is an arrangement that seeks to maximise land space by going vertical instead of the usual lateral structures, which only occupy space and do not ensure efficient use of land.
The Headmistress of the Mante-Din Drive Basic School, Madam Mercy Yaa Amponsah, expressed her profound gratitude to the TMA for having cut the sod for the commencement of a school building, which recently had its roofs ripped off and exercise books wet because of the rains that have set in.