Christian Methodist Senior High School (CHRIMESCO ) is one of the two Senior High Schools (SHS) in the Ga South Municipality of the Greater Accra Region.
The school which was established in 1965 and has a student population of about two thousand (2000 ) is threatened by a number of factors which the government must urgently pay attention to.
The is the school that has trained great people like the ace journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, the great and popular musician, Nat Brew (Amandzeba), just to mention a few.
The School was formally located at Adabraka near Kwame Nkrumah Circle in a private property with very limited space for many years.
Government therefore acquired one hundred and ten acres land (110) for the school near the Block Factory on the Kasoa road here in Accra. Unfortunately, by the time the school moved to the new site, the land had already been encroached upon, leaving only about five acres for the school.
When a team of Journalists In Development (JID) visited the school to do undercover checks, all sorts of buildings including private houses, schools, fitting shops, churches, mosques, containers, etc. were discovered.
The team saw a thick bush which looked like a reserved forest right behind the school. The team initially thought the “forest” was reserved for recreation. But it was later realised that the people around had turned that portion of land into a dumping site. According to sources, the bush is a breeding ground for snakes, other poisonous reptiles and animals which obviously is a threat to students on campus. Criminals such as armed robbers and wee smokers also hide in the bush and terrorise people there at night. The school has no assembly hall and a football pitch. So then why is the school not making use of that portion of land which is rather breeding snakes and harbouring criminals.
Our checks also revealed that there’s a road that runs through the school, and that’s indeed a major source of worry to the students as they could be knocked down by those reckless drivers. Not to talk about the loud noise alone generated by the engine of these vehicles are enough to distract academic work on campus.
The school even has no fence wall around it currently as we speak and this greatly affects security operations and also makes discipline a major problem to handle.
In addition, the team learnt that the only dormitory built for the school almost 70% complete for the past seven years ago was abandoned. The team also gathered that the contractor left the site and has since not reported.
As a result students who come from afar are compelled to rent apartments at nearby places. This development has often put the students, especially, the girls into situations of possible attacks and harassment according to our sources.
Unfortunately, the school’s eighteen unit classroom block which started many years ago has also been abadoned. Although the classroom building has not been completed, the school is forced to use it for teaching and learning as a result of lack of classrooms due to increasing student population of the school.
It is sad again to note that in this day and age where science and technology have become the driving force of development in every sphere of life, and where every well meaning secondary school has the facility, Christian Methodist Senior High School alone cannot even boast of one such facility because the building which was put up for that purpose was also abandoned many years ago and turned into a den for criminals.
Finally, the school does not have a staff accommodation on campus and this affects academic work of the school as staff travel long distances to school everyday.
Students who wanted to remain anonymous spoke to the JID team with regrets saying government has neglected the school, and that it has not done enough to rescue the school from its present predicaments.
They however called on President Akuffo Addo to as a matter of urgency intervene to save the school by completing all abandoned projects in the school. They also want the President to immediately reclaim the school lands that have been encroached upon to enable the school to attain development in order to enhance academic work.
JID can recall that a statement was made by the President in connection with reclaiming of the school lands when he spoke to chiefs at a durbar held in his honour at James Town here in Accra recently. But nothing concrete has been done to see to the realization of President’s directive. Until nothing concrete is done students of Christian Methodist SHS will continue to bear the brunt of living in fear, insecurity and hardships that comes with poor and inadequate school facilities which is an affront to teaching and learning.
Source: Journalists In Development (JID)
Writers: Kojo Aidoo/Joseph Wemakor