A Deputy Minister for Education in-charge of General Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum has told Parliament that 27 E-block projects have been completed by the Akufo Addo administration.
According to him, only 29 out of the 124 that were almost ready were completed under the Mahama government.
Dr. Adutwum has been answering questions in Parliament from Kwabre East MP, Francisca Oteng Mensah on the state of E-blocks started by the Mahama administration to ease congestion in Senior High Schools.
Currently, the Commission is completing all ongoing and stalled projects including the outstanding community senior high school projects also known as the e blocks.
“Mr. Speaker, it should however be noted that a total number of 27 Community Senior High Schools have been completed and operationalized from January 2017 till date for use by students. There were 124 E-blocks that we inherited. As of December 2016, 29 had been completed.”
Former President John Dramani Mahama who spearheaded the start of work on the 200 Community Day Schools recently condemned what he called as the decision by the current government to stop paying for ongoing projects and refusal to open other completed.
“In my round touring communities across the country, I have drawn attention to the criminal abandonment of projects and this is one very good example. This is an almost complete project of Secondary School and Community Day School…you can even see fire extinguishers installed and ready to go…this is one of the 23 World Bank-funded project,” he told journalists.
“If you go across the country, you will find them at different stages of completion…some are almost completed yet they remain unoccupied. If you look at the children in that community and its surrounding communities they have to travel several kilometres to go get secondary education when a secondary school is at their doorstep,” he said.
But the government refuted the claims by Mr. Mahama.
A statement released by the Ministry clarified that the Mpaha Community Day Senior High School in the Savanna Region where the former President made the comments had not been abandoned.
Gov’t to make Mahama’s E-blocks boarding schools
The Ministry of Education recently said it has already awarded contracts to make the E-blocks constructed under the Mahama administration boarding facilities to ease the accommodation challenges created by the implementation of the Free Senior High School program.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Vincent Ekow Assafuah said this had become necessary because the E-blocks are lying idle.
