Pathetic: Berekum SHS students sleep in dining hall/classrooms

• Posted on March 18, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Berekum Senior High School (BESS) is in dire need of a girls’ dormitory as the school’s dining hall and some classrooms have been converted into dormitories to enable students get a place to lay their heads.

A classroom block is now a dormitory for the over 600 girls. The dormitory is overcrowded with little space to move around.

Tiwaa Linda, a second-year student, in an interview said the situation was very unbearable for the female students in the school, and called on the authorities to rectify the situation.

The school, which began with only 50 students in 1970, currently has a total population of 1,605 students: 939 boys and 666 girls.

Authorities say though the population keeps increasing every academic year, there is no corresponding infrastructure to house the students, resulting in the partitioning of the dining hall into two to serve as a boys’ dormitory and a venue for social activities.

The headmaster of the school, Mr Ebenezer Ayensu, told The Finder that despite the challenges, the school is doing well academically.

The school presented 840 candidates in 2013 and scored 100%.

Mr Ayensu said students eat in the open.

Another major problem facing the school is acute water shortage. There is only one borehole for the whole school, which sometimes dries up during the dry season.

Mr Ayensu added that the situation is affecting discipline.

Written by Michael Sarpong Mfum, Berekum