Death trap: Dilapidated Shama Catholic School block abandoned after pupil injured

The Headmaster of the Shama Basic Catholic School, Augustine Nyamekye, says his outfit is halting the use of their JHS classroom school block because of its dilapidated state.

The facility, which was constructed over a century ago, has become a death trap for both pupils and teachers.

The headmaster was speaking after some debris from the dilapidated one-story school structure injured a pupil at the school.

Mr. Nyamekye said the school management is meeting the PTA to discuss a shift system for students in the primary section.

“I am sad because of the state of this school building. This school was the first school in Shama and was built by the Roman Catholic Church in 1902. This school has helped a lot of people in Sekondi-Takoradi, and its environs because it was the only school available at that time.”

“In 2004 this school building was renovated, but now the state of the building is not in a good shape and the students can’t use it. What happened yesterday means that the second floor collapsed, and we thank God that it didn’t fall on any of the students, except for one student who was injured on the arm and is now at the hospital. So for now, the school building is not in a good state to be used by the school.”

“The management of the school has put in place measures to meet the primary school heads and PTA to arrange with them so that they can run a shift for the primary school to help them use the primary block. Right now, the Junior high school block is not in a good shape for the students to sit and learn in that block”, he said.

The headmaster further called for immediate completion of an 8-unit classroom block extension funded by GETFund but has been under construction since 2001.

“We are pleading with the government to complete the GETFund project, which is an eight-unit classroom block which was started in 2001. The contractor was given six months to complete it, three months later the building was almost done but due to some financial problems, the contractor stopped working. We are pleading with the government, our Regional Minister, DCE, to help talk to the contractor and also help in the financing for the building to be completed so that the teachers and the students will be able to go back to their classrooms,” he added.

—citinewsroom