Encroachers take over lands belonging to TAMASCO

The Headmaster of the Tamale Senior High School (TAMASCO) in the Northern Region, Mr Suaib Wilberforce Adams, has expressed concern over the activities of encroachers who are taking over lands belonging to the school.

He asked them to desist from the practice, explaining that some of them had gone to the extent of converting parts of the school’s lands into drinking bars.

He expressed these sentiments when he addressed the 65th anniversary and 22nd Speech and Prize-giving Day of TAMASCO in Tamale.

The ceremony, which brought together parents, teachers, chiefs, past and continuing students of the school, was held on the theme: “Sixty-five years of TAMASCO: a legacy of educational excellence built on the foundation of Fortiter, Fideliter, Feliciter.”

Mr Adams, who is also the Chairman for the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) in the northern sector, said anytime the school attempted to fence its lands, some of the encroachers and the residents in the area would push down the walls.

He also said armed robbers and ‘wee’ smokers had pitched camp at various parts of the school and had been robbing students and teachers of their belongings, especially in the night. He, therefore, appealed to security agencies for assistance.

Mr Adams also appealed to the government to expedite action on the release of the feeding grants to the schools in the three regions of the north, pointing out that the delays negatively affected the operations of the SHSs in the three regions of the north.

In her remarks, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Mrs Marietta Brew Appiah-Oppong, who represented President John Dramani Mahama, indicated that the government had distributed 10,000 bunk beds and 20,000 mattresses to some selected senior high schools in the Northern Region.

She also said the government had distributed 36,000 free uniforms for basic school pupils in the region, and added that the move was in fulfilment of the government’s commitment towards improving and making quality education accessible to all Ghanaian children.

She said the government was committed to providing all the necessary logistics needed to enhance quality teaching and learning, particularly at the basic and senior high school (SHS) levels across the country, indicating that the government, as part of its policy to expand access to SHSs in the region, was constructing 13 day SHSs in the region.

She praised the founding fathers of the school for setting up the institution, saying TAMASCO continued to be the light in SHS education in northern Ghana.

The Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr Issahak Nashiru, who was the Guest Speaker, commended the school’s authorities for maintaining academic excellence in the region since its establishment.

Dr Nashiru,  an old student of the school, said the school, since its establishment, had trained many distinguished individuals who had contributed to the development of the region and the country as a whole.