Haruna Iddrisu Plans Visit To GHANASCO

The Member of Parliament for Tamale South Constituency, Haruna Iddrisu is planning to visit the Ghana Senior High School (GHANASCO), Tamale,  following the toilet-turned-dormitory report.

The purpose of his visit, he said, is to ascertain the veracity of the claim.

The school falls in his constituency.

According to him, the news is unfortunate and disappointing if ascertained to be true and, therefore, supports the decision to probe the allegation.

“I, therefore, support the decision by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to institute an independent enquiry into the matter in order to give assurance to parents and the general public about the safety and wellbeing of students of the School.”

He, however, failed to give the exact date for the visit.

Videos showing male students using toilet cubicles as dormitories surfaced on social media last week.

The students, in the video, had their mattresses and belonging in there and in a hallway.

The news received condemnation from a section of the public including the deputy Ranking member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Hon Clement Apaak.

In a statement, the GES condemned the news as unacceptable, disturbing and unfortunate.

According to the Service, accommodation shouldn’t be a problem for the school as records available indicate that the school has 300 excess accommodation capacity for students.

“This is very disturbing and unfortunate especially when records available to us indicate that out of the 1790 vacancies declared by the school, only 1467 students have been enrolled,” a statement from the head of the Public Relations Unit of the GES, Cassandra Twum Amofo stated.

The Regional Director of Education on that note has been directed to investigate the allegations and present findings within two weeks as Mr Yakubu and the Senior housemaster of the school step aside for the investigations to carry on.

The headmaster, Doughlas Haruna Yakubu, has discredited the viral video stating that it was staged.

In an interview, Mr Yakubu said the toilet cubicles are not used as sleeping spaces but as storage facilities for students going on vacation to keep their belongings.

“That facility has been there for so many years, it has never been a dormitory or a storage room, it is a store more or less. In the 60s when Kwame Nkrumah built the rooms, they were washrooms, and so they still have the design of washrooms, but the facility has not been modernised, so they are just small, small cubicles and that is where we keep our chop boxes when students are travelling,” he is quoted a saying by Citinews.

He confirmed that the school has adequate spaces to accommodate students in the school.

“They are never sleeping places…Those cubicles are so tiny and so hot that students cannot live in them. We have enough space, so this is not fair.”