The lives of students, particularly those in the boarding houses at the Mepe Saint-Kizito Senior High Technical School in the North Tongu District of the Volta Region are in danger.
This is because the students defecate in the bushes and also take their baths daily in makeshift structures, DAILY Analyst can authoritatively report.
The situation, this paper gathered, is putting the students at risk of being attacked by wild animals and/or bitten by dangerous reptiles hiding in the surrounding greeneries.
The students of Mepe Saint-Kizito have complained about the lack of proper bathing and toilet facilities, inadequate supply of food, students’ desks, and poor road networks as the school struggles to meet its academic standards.
Checks by DAILY Analyst on the campus on Saturday, August 5, 2023, revealed the lack of proper bathing facilities in the school, forcing hundreds of students both male and female students who are boarders to take their baths in open spaces or makeshift structures.
During DAILY Analyst’s visit, it was observed that the only pit latrine dug for the state-owned school for many years ago was in a deplorable state, which situation was forcing the students, particularly the boarding ones, to attend to nature’s call in nearby bushes though at the peril of their lives.
The condition of the only toilet facility used by thousands of the students in the school was very appalling and the facility had also developed many deep cracks and it was full to its capacity and on the verge of collapse.
The situation, according to the students, was affecting academic work, as they either use instructional hours to look for water or endure blackouts at night without studying.
“It is affecting us both emotionally and academically. In terms of academics, you can’t get the time to go to class on time; at least you have to struggle to get a proper place to bath or go to nature’s call.
That, DAILY Analyst learned, was due to the dangerous state of the only pit latrine in the school.
The school, this paper further learned, was deprived of adequate desks, dormitories, classroom blocks, and canteen, which situation has compelled both the teaching staff and the students to appeal to the government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to come to their aid.
The lack of proper sanitary facilities was not limited to Mepe Saint-Kizito Senior High Technical School, as a recent visit by DAILY Analyst to the Mepe Traditional Area showed that about 92% percent of public primary and Junior High Schools in the area did not have decent places of convenience.
State-owned schools including Mepe Presbyterian Primary, District Authority (DA) JHS, Mepe RC Primary, and JHS lacked essential amenities that could have helped in enhancing teaching and learning in the area.
DAILY Analyst understands that many of these schools were built over two decades ago under the erstwhile Jerry John Rawlings administration and have since not seen any major facelift.
During the visit, it was also discovered that while some of the public schools had toilets, they lacked water systems.
Some students and teaching staff told this journalist that the development had compelled them to defecate in the bushes, an act that accentuates how far Ghana far from realizing the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal Seven (7) which seeks to improve the provision of safe drinking water and sanitation.
The students and teachers pointed out that the issue of non-availability of toilet facilities had become part of the public school system in that part of the traditional area in the district.
“It is not even being regarded as a priority at all. So, over the years, we have become accustomed to using the bush, where it is available,” a teacher who wished to remain anonymous lamented.