Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has pledged the government’s commitment to making E-blocks facilities in parts of the country operational.
He said that the completion of the E-blocks remains a priority for his ministry and that they will ensure that the facilities serve the purpose for which they were built.
The ministry has so far completed 60 out of the 200 schools, and the latest is the Apagya Senior High School in the Adansi South District of the Ashanti Region.
The location of the E-block facility, which was to serve as a community day school for the inhabitants of Apagya, made it difficult to admit students.
The E-block at Apagya, like many others situated on the outskirts of communities, needed to be complemented with boarding facilities in order to make them fully-fledged senior high schools.
Opinion leaders and community members in Apagya had consistently raised concerns about the inability of authorities to make the facility fully operational.
In response, the ministry put up dormitories for male and female students to ensure access for those who live far away from the school.
Dr Adutwum insisted that the government has not abandoned the E-blocks facilities, but is doing its best to make better the facilities that the previous government began constructing.
“Government is about continuity. So the administration of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has not abandoned E-blocks. What we have done is to make them better. I will not sit here and say because E-blocks were started by NDC is a bad thing. No. If the location is not good then we have to do something about it to make it more useful to the people of Ghana.”
“E-blocks that were located at Dome-Kwabenya and Frafraha in Accra and Agric-Nzema in Kumasi have been populated by students and we keep adding more buildings. But then the same cannot be said of the E-Block at Apagya. Without a dormitory, we couldn’t have opened Apagya. So today I am excited that all those facilities have been provided and Apagya Senior High School is now operational,” he stated.
He also assured that the ministry will ensure that all facilities needed to improve enrolment at the Apagya Senior High School are provided.
Public Relations Officer at the Adansi South Education Directorate, James Kusi, said that currently 168 students have been enrolled in the school.
“Some classrooms are yet to be fully furnished, although the E-block is painted and some equipment has been installed at the laboratory,” he added.
Moreover, Chairman of the Apagya Senior High School committee, Mensah Bediako, and some community members say that the school still lacks basic amenities such as kitchen and dining facilities to make teaching and learning conducive.
The Apagya Senior High School currently offers courses such as General Arts, Visual Arts, and Home Economics.
