Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, has questioned government’s claim that the Community Day SHS constructed during the Mahama era are inaccessible, arguing school buses were procured to make accessibility easy.
According to him, the claims by critics that the schools, popularly known as E-Blocks, were inaccessible because they were built outside towns were illegitimate.
At the time the John Mahama administration was leaving office, he said, 200 buses procured to convey students from their various communities had been delivered in Accra and were to be daistributed to the schools.
The John Mahama government resolved to build 200 Community Day SHS across the country to bridge the education gap between the rural and urban areas.
According to the Ministry of Education, first year students were rejecting the Community Day Schools because they were remotely sited.
“About 200 buses were left for distribution to the E-Block schools. They were left at the State House,” Mr Vanderpuye told Bright Asempa on Onua FM’s Yen Sempa morning show Tuesday.
He explained that during feasibility studies on the schools, concerns were raised about their siting, and based that, a decision was taken provide each of the 200 schools with a bus.
Mr Vanderpuye said the buses were then procured and waiting delivery to the schools when they were exiting office hence Ghanaians should asked the Akufo-Addo government “what they used the buses for”.
“They were meant for the schools to pick the children from their villages to the schools. We consulted the chiefs and built those schools so those who express concerns about the locations of the schools were promised buses but the NPP government has used the buses for something else,” he claimed.
Commenting on the government Free SHS, the MP the policy was costing some parents money as they have had to rent single rooms for their wards who have been posted to far away schools without boarding houses.
“School children are now tenants because there are no boarding houses for the students,” he said.
“Single rooms are very expensive now. They pay rent, water, electricity. They come home close to three months. They have to go for extra classes and the cost on the parents is more than the free SHS”.
Meanwhile, he said students are being infected with various diseases because of overcrowding, claiming “they eat in open places”.
By Timothy Antwi-Otoo|3news.com|Ghana