The congested dinning hall at the St. Charles Seminary Senior High School
The St. Charles Seminary Senior High School in Tamale in the Northern Region lacks enough space to accommodate its students.
This follows the lack of dormitory facilities to accommodate the students after their dormitories were gutted by fire.
The St. Charles Seminary Senior High School in Tamale has recorded about four fire outbreaks from 2017-2022.
The fire destroyed classroom blocks offices, a storeroom,and dormitories.
The school has been compelled to convert a dining hall into a dormitory to accommodate the students.
The students have however lamented the congestion due to the number of students accommodated in the converted dormitory.
“ This is not a dormitory it’s a dining hall but due to the situation, we have found ourselves we have been forced to use this place. We are crowded in here and we are suffering,” a student said.
They expressed fear that they might contract skin diseases, or COVID-19, because of the overcrowding in the dormitory.
“COVID-19 is still with us and you can imagine if there’s an outbreak of COVID-19 so we are afraid,” another student lamented.
The students appealed to the government, institutions, philanthropists, and individuals who can help to come to the aid of the school and provide them with dormitory facilities.
The Senior House Master of the School, Joseph Timiebi, told journalists that the major challenge the school is facing is accommodation for the students.
“If you go to the dormitories they are congested and even sometimes some of the students are forced to sleep outside and this is making it difficult to control the students and maintain discipline,” he said.
According to him, the school has converted most of its classrooms into dormitories due to the lack of dormitories which has affected the school.
He indicated that the lack of dormitories and the converting of classrooms into dormitories has reduced enrollment in the school
“ We used to have about 800-900 students but currently we have about 600 students and it’s because of the fire outbreaks and lack of dormitories and because we have converted most of the classrooms into dormitories which is inadequate to contain the few students we have.”
Mr. Timiebi noted that some eight rooms accommodation project started by the government to tackle the accommodation situation in the school has been halted and that the contractor has abandoned the site.
He called on the government, NGOs, and other bodies to come to the aid of the school and help them because they are in crisis.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale