The Headmaster of Sekondi College (SEKO), Mr Francis Rexford Sam, has called for urgent support to address infrastructural challenges facing the school.
According to him, the 67th anniversary of the school offers a strategic platform to resolve plights impeding growth and transform it into one of the premier and model educational institutions in the country.
"The 67th anniversary milestone is strategic. We have chosen to do this because if we fail to draw public attention to our plight today for speedy redress, we shall spell disaster for our school in the very near future. Our school needs upgrading as a matter of urgency due to increase in enrolment and limited land size," he stated.
Mr Sam was speaking at the 67th anniversary celebration of SEKO on Saturday, on the theme, 'The Free Senior High School policy: An all hands on deck approach to universal education and nation-building.'
The event, which was also a homecoming for old students, saw the commissioning of the school gate.
Since 1951, he said, the school which was then headed by late J.W Acquah, had faced infrastructural challenges until 1958, when the Kwame Nkrumah Educational Trust Fund provided some facilities.
"In November 1971, we moved to Ekuase Hill Top and left our structure we acquired in 20 years. Again in 1989, we moved to and left all our buildings at Ranchi Barracks and we find here at our third and permanent site is what a 29-year old school had struggled to obtain within the period. We deserve new structures to replace the ones we have lost to our old sites. This will make it possible for us to cope with the ever growing number of students and continue to deliver quality education for our students," he added.
The headmaster said the need for new facilities was to accommodate huge number of students as a result of the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy noting that currently "we have 43 classrooms and if we divide them among the 3,030 student populations, it works out on the average 71 students to one classroom and this will be reduced to 63 student per class with the establishment of the new GNPC six-block classrooms.
He said the school's land had become a battle field for encroachers saying that the school would propose two or three staff bungalows to be sited at strategic points to clamp down on the problem.
"As a short to medium term measure, we need a 12 -16 unit classroom block, a library complex, a 20 unit urinal for student use, a 20-seater toilet for students on campus a 3,000 or 4,000 seater assembly hall and a six-unit staff bungalow," Mr Sam added.
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