The 1989 year group of the Accra Academy has commissioned a refurbished dining hall for the students of the Accra Academy Senior High School.
The event, which was held at the forecourt of the school brought together past and present “Bleobii” based both locally and abroad.
The headmaster of the Acadamy Rev.William Foli Garr, who expressed his gratitude to the 1809 year group, said with the introduction of free Senior High School the institution had to deal with the challenge of accommodating the increased number of students.
“It is for this reason that I wish on behalf of the school administration, staff and students to express my heartfelt gratitude to the BLEOO’ 89 for the huge investment made to refurbish the school’s dining hall at a total cost of about hundred and seventy thousand dollars. We are thankful to BLEOO’ 89 that they dared to go beyond just the thought of seeing their alma mater with an improved dining facility but ensured that their dream came true,” he said
“In September last year when the government rolled out the free SHS policy, the school encountered a challenge in relation to the feeding of day student at lunchtime. We responded with a temporary measure of providing canopies for two hundred and fifty students out of three hundred day students who were unable to find space in the expanded dining hall. Before the refurbishment, the facility could comfortably seat about nine hundred students for dinning. However, with the enlarged facility, it could seat an additional three hundred and fifty students.”
The headmaster, who also appreciated the effort by Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to complete the project, stated most senior high schools in the country have had to fall on support by stakeholders to serve quality education to its students.
“The school is grateful to GNPC who supported the project with an amount of one hundred and twenty dollars. It is no secret that throughout the country schools have to rely on other sources of support other than government for development of facilities that enhance both social and economic performance of schools.” he added.
In a welcome address, by the chairman of the occasion, Mr. Wilson Tei, who is also Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school, reiterated that over the past 15 years government has not started or supported any project in the school.
“I think the last time that any government gave this school money for any additional work to be done even painting in this school has been about 15 years. We had no money to do any repair work on this campus neither have we had any money to do any painting of the structures in this school,” he said.
The school reached out to other year groups to give back to their alma mater and further urged the students to maintain the facility in order to achieve its full potential.
“We also call on other old boys and year groups to try as much as possible to come and at least roof the place for the students to have lunch.
“We also what to use this medium to encourage those of our mate who were not able to contribute, to be part of this group because it’s always good to give back to society especially for your Alma where we were trained, educationally and we were brought up as young boys to become the men that we are today” he urged.
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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana