HASCO IN DEPLORABLE STATE

Story: Moses Dotsey Aklorbortu, Half-Assini
The facilities at the Half-Assini Senior High School in the Jomoro District of the Western Region apart from the Administration and Science blocks has become a death trap and unfriendly for academic work.
Since its inception in 1960 with less than 60 students, the students’ population has moved up to more than 1,000. But the school had not seen rehabilitation or expansion of its infrastructure.
The school which is selected for model school project is yet to see its facilities upgraded to that status.
The assembly hall which is used for entertainment and other school functions could collapse at anytime if urgent measures are not taken.
The 50 years old structure had the ceiling in the hall was off, the roof leaks badly, electric cables are seriously exposed, and the structure could be likened to an abandoned one but part of the school’s facilities and still in use.
At the dormitories, especially the girls’ dormitory, a room that was designed for 15 girls and their belongings is currently accommodating about 90 girls.
Some did not have access to bed; therefore, place their student mattresses on floor to sleep.
That aside, Art Theater has been converted into classroom, and the furniture in the classrooms was straight single deck desk which parked with little space for the students to move.
This was as a result of the increase in the intake of the school without the correspondent expansion of its infrastructure.
At the moment, the upper part of one of the boy’s dormitory is being used as a lecture hall for all first year students.
One interesting thing about the converted upper dormitory is that, it is a long hall that was partitioned with plywood without window and doors.
Therefore what the tutor is teaching in class A1 his message could be heard by those in the last end of the long hall converted into classrooms.
“When the teachers are delivering their lecture, we could hear all that the teacher in form 1A is saying in even form 1 D, therefore it has become very difficult for us to concentrate,” one of the students has said.
Because the windows are off therefore, when it start raining, or the sun is up, academic work is either suspended or if becomes necessary, the students had to shift to one side.
Typical of most endowed schools is a good library, sick bay and toilet facilities. But the case of HASCO is different; they did not have any of these facilities.
If a student is sick at night, they have to rush him or her to the government facility which is a distance from the school. The sad aspect was that the road to the school is also very bad.
There were about three abandoned projects, which according to the school authorities, were award to contractors but failed to complete the project.
According to the headmaster of the school, Mr Kojo Egya, it was only the hand of God that was preventing any disaster during functions at the assembly hall.
Asked if they were not doing anything to support themselves, he said, from their internally generated fund, they had initiated projects and are yet to be completed.
At present, according to the students, what their pressing needs was classrooms, well equipped library and good furniture to enhance their academic work.
To them, the facilities are the primary and Junior High Schools they came from were even better the here.
“But we have no option, how can we be studying and the direction of the sun or the weather will force us to shift our tables,” they asked.
That aside the students were said to be discipline and per form well in final exams.