Member of Parliament (MP) for the South Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, Hon. Wisdom Mensah Kobena Woyome has donated one hundred (100) bags of cement towards an on-going school-initiated boys’ dormitory building project by the management of the Comboni Technical Vocational Institute (COMBOTECH) at Sogakope.
The donation was a pledge the MP made to the Institute when fire completely raised down the three-unit dilapidated boys’ dormitory block of the school on Wednesday, 18th March, 2020, displacing close to two hundred (200) students who were then writing their end-of-term examinations.
Before the fire disaster, the school authorities initiated their own three (3) unit boys’ dormitory project with constructional works being done by the students themselves under the supervision of their tutors, all aimed at addressing the acute residential accommodation challenges facing the Institute for several years.
The structure, which was at the ground level at the time of the fire inferno, has reached its lintel stage, hence the cement donation by the MP as part of his continuous contribution towards educational development in the school.
Making the presentation, Hon. Woyome disclosed that he had taken up the boys’ dormitory fire incident matter not only at the level of Parliament but also discussed it with the Minister of Education for urgent support from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to fix the issue.
He therefore repeated his call on government especially the Ministry of Education (MoE) and GETFund Secretariat to urgently come to the aid of the school, stressing, ‘the students need their dormitory block back, now that schools are gradually re-opening in the midst of the current Covid-19 pandemic’.
The MP stressed the need for technical experts to undertake a holistic assessment of the destroyed boys’ dormitory block so as to pave way for a decent and befitting accommodation for the students.
According to him, government must heavily invest in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) education so as to propel the country into achieving its vision of producing the needed technical and vocational human resource personnel for development.
Mr. Woyome congratulated the Principal, Staff and Management of COMBOTECH as well as the entire student body for the dormitory block initiative which is a handiwork of the masonry students of the school.
The donation was received on behalf of the Institute by the District Director of Education (DDE) for the area, Ms. Evelyn Araba Zentey.
She thanked the MP for the support, adding that the gesture would go a long way to address part of the Institute’s residential accommodation problem for the students.
The brief ceremony was witnessed on behalf of the school by some staff led by the Vice Principal in-charge of Domestic Affairs, Mr. Cyril Addo. He played the role of Oliver Twist, further appealing to the MP, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) as well as well-meaning individuals and organizations to urgently assist with roofing sheets to ensure the completion of the project on schedule.
Credit: Akukorku Media Consult
