TMA responds to Times story …Constructs fence wall around 2 schools to ward off miscreants

The Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) has constructed a fence wall round the Twedaase Junior High School and Akodzo Junior High School in Tema Community 1 to ward off miscreants and encroachers.

The TMA embarked on the project  after the ‘Ghanaian Times’ carried a story in its February 6, 2019 issue about the manner in which some drug addicts besieged the public school to indulge in drugs, cook and sleep around the compound.

The miscreants virtually turned the school and others in the area into “Ghettoes” where they smoked substances suspected to be Indian hemp, cocaine and cooked in the compounds during school hours.

This put the lives of the students and teachers in danger with serious consequences for teaching and learning as the Twedaase JHS also served as a Teachers’ Resource Center for the Tema metropolis and a place for preparing teaching and learning materials.

When the Ghanaian Times visited the school yesterday some masons were plastering the wall, and the school was in session but the drug addicts were absent. 

One of the mason’s said: “The addicts used to come around when we started digging the foundation for the fence wall but they stopped after the wall took shape.” 

A resident, Mr Samuel Acquah, lauded the TMA for undertaking the fence wall project to protect the students and teachers.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive of Tema, Mr Felix Nii Anang-La, said the TMA was fencing all public schools to avert encroachment. 

12 out of 156 public schools have so far had their fence walls completed.

Nii Anang-La noted that the publication by the Ghanaian Times led to the prioritisation of the fence wall project by the Assembly.

He assured that securitymen would be deployed to guard the Twedaase JHS school when the wall was completed to ensure the addicts did not come back.

Other schools in the area that have benefitted from the fence wall project include Twedaase Primary School and George Padmore Basic School.

Meanwhile, Cargill Ghana Limited (a cocoa processing company) has refurbished the Akodzo classroom block and restocked the Information and Communications Technology laboratory with computers and accessories. It has also donated text books to the school’s library.

The initiative was in line with the TMA’s operation adopt a school programme (Tema restoration agenda) where corporate bodies and organisations partner the assembly to refurbish public schools to improve teaching and learning.