President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to convert HAN Senior High School in the Upper West Region into a boarding institution as part of government’s efforts to improve access to secondary education in rural communities.
The President said the decision was informed by the difficulty students in rural areas face in commuting to school due to the wide geographical spread of their catchment areas.
President Mahama made the announcement during an inspection of ongoing GETFund projects at HAN SHS as part of his two-day Resetting Ghana Tour of the Upper West Region.
He said the school was originally established as a Community Day Senior High School, explaining that the concept was intended to enable students within surrounding communities to attend school while living at home.
According to him, experience from the implementation of the Community Day SHS concept, including the E-block schools constructed during his previous administration, had shown that the model was less practical in rural areas with large catchment populations.
“We came to the realisation that, especially for schools in rural areas, the catchment areas are so wide that it makes it difficult for students to commute to school every day,” he said.
President Mahama explained that government would therefore adopt a different approach by maintaining the community day concept in densely populated areas, while converting rural schools with wide catchment areas into boarding institutions.
He assured the Headmaster of HAN SHS that the school would not be granted boarding status without the necessary infrastructure.
He said boys’ and girls’ dormitories would be provided to accommodate students on campus.
“So, Headmaster, we are not going to give you boarding status without building the necessary facilities. We will provide boys’ and girls’ dormitories, so you should know that boarding status is definitely on the way,” President Mahama said.
He added that once the ongoing GETFund projects were completed, the school would officially be redesignated as a boarding school and would begin admitting boarding students.
The President commended the quality of work on the five ongoing GETFund projects at the school and said government would return to commission the completed facilities.
He emphasised that the projects were being financed with taxpayers’ money and must therefore deliver value to the Ghanaian people.
Story by: Emmanuel Romeo Tetteh(#RomeoWrites✍️)/ Presidential Affairs Correspondent | Ghana 🇬🇭
