Mpraeso: Headmaster of MPASS weeps over poor Infrastructure

The Management and Students community of Mpraeso Senior High School (MPASS) in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region has appealed to the government, parents, old student association (Abusua) and other benovolent organizations and individuals to come to the aid of the school as they cry over what the headmaster termed as ‘infrastructural scarcity’.

This appeal was made by the Headmaster of the school Kwame Owusu Adwoni in his report during the school’s 58th Speech and Prize Given Day celebration held recently in the school. It was to highlight the school’s progress over the years, while rewarding hardworking staff and students, engaging stakeholders expecially parents and past students to identify challenges and chart the way forward.

It also gave management the opportunity to take stock and strategies for the collective good of the school’s future.

It is obvious, the former school of Lt General Obed Akwa the Chief of Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and others who have received academic impactation over the years serving mother Ghana in various capacities lacks some key infrastructure including beds, desks, dining tables, and dining benches.

The Headmaster lamented that the school is still using the old dining hall built by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah during the establishment of the school in 1961 which was then housing about 300 students population.

“The school needs a bigger dining hall badly, I have not been to all Nkrumahs schools but for the ones I have visited it’s only Mpraeso Senior High School which is still using the old dining hall in it’s original state. Some schools in addition to expanding the dining hall have assembly halls and chapels, it is my hope and prayer that this will be the last time MPASS is appealing to stakeholders to help her get a befitting dining hall” the headmaster stated.

According to him the school with a current student population if 2, 378 can only boast of 1250 beds, 1070 desks, 138 dining tables and 247 dining benches with a deficit of 1128, 1308, 60 and 150 beds, desks, dining tables and dining benches respectfully.

He said the implication is that the school cannot m accommodate the whole student population in one session any longer.

“There is a GETFund Assembly Hall project which had started but has not been completed, we appeal to all and sundry to help trace the contractor to come to site for the project to complete. If we have this two facilities; dining hall and and assembly hall the life span of the school furniture will be elongated,” Adwoni noted.

The school despite the state of infrastructural deficit has managed to improve on the school’s academic performance over the years as reported by the headmaster.

“Academic performance of the school has boosted and from the previous year 2017 when the results for university entry passes(A1 to C6) was 14.5%; in 2018 we had 66% students passing to enter tertiary institutions. In 2019, I am happy to inform you that our WASSCE results stood at 71.49% tertiary entry passes (A1 to C6) at Mpraeso Senior high School. To the extent that last year, the school was awarded a certificate of merit from the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwah and the Deputy Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum. Yours truely was invited to the gathering of low performing schools and I your headmaster became a resource person to educate colleagues about how the school had made it to this level”.

The headmaster on behalf of the management of the school expressed their gratitude to the government of Ghana for embarking on numerous projects going on in the school and the Free Senior High School which has allowed many children who would have otherwise not gained admission to senior High Schools to do so now.

The school awarded some 25 students, teachers and some other personnel who have contributed immensely towards the development of the school.

Source: William Dei-Gyau