The Wesley Girls High School in Cape Coast is facing a challenging situation, with many girls compelled to sleep on the floor due to overcrowding and congestion.
The head prefect and headmistress acknowledged this issue, attributing it to inadequate infrastructure. At the speech and prize-giving day held over the weekend, the Girls’ Prefect, Abena Benewah, highlighted the unsafe living conditions they are grappling with.
“Hundreds of girls are sleeping on the floor. This problem also pushes us to eat our meals in two batches,” she said.
Ms. Benewah further appealed to the government to come to their aid in addressing the overcrowding and infrastructure challenges at Wesley Girls High School.
“From the tiny inconveniences to the deep and large potholes which hinder our progress, we have learnt as a school to endure, but I ask myself must we suffer when we can take help?” she quizzed.
She emphasized that the shortage of furniture in the school is becoming a persistent challenge that needs to be addressed.
“The moment in which we gaze upon our sisters who must use plastic chairs in their classrooms and lack tables to comfortably write on cannot be put on hold.”
She mentioned that the number of computers in the IT laboratory is far below their standard, with only two working PCs serving a student population of over 3,000.
Meanwhile, the headmistress of Wesley Girls School, Jeannette Ruby Siameh, stated that despite consistent support from alumnae, the school continues to face various challenges.
She mentioned that Wesley Girls High School, looks very beautiful and appears to be well-endowed in terms of facilities, “meanwhile all that glitters they say is not gold. Under the cloak of outward beauty lies a grave bed of dire needs.”
Madam Ruby Siameh emphasized the need to complete the new assembly hall and address the lack of buses at Wesley Girls School. She also mentioned the necessity for the school to have better road networks. President Akufo-Addo assured the students and management of government support.
President Akufo-Addo criticized former President Mahama for questioning the authenticity of the WASSCE results of Ghanaian students, describing the comment as unfortunate. He urged the 2024 flagbearer of the NDC to be more cautious in his statements.
“Contrary to the normal experience, the large excess and improved quality have gone hand in hand. Long may this continue”.
“It is a pity though”, he added, “that the sad nature of aspects of contemporary Ghanaian politics drove some otherwise allegedly responsible people including your former president and current NDC presidential candidate to question the integrity of the results happily without any foundation and to attribute these results to cheating.”
“Students of Wesley Girls High School, do you cheat in examinations? This loud no will send a strong message to those who expressed these unfortunate, misguided sentiments.”
The President also stated that the 2023 WASSCE results demonstrate the quality of education provided under the free senior high school program.
“The WASSCE results of the students I proudly call the Akufo-Addo graduates have shown that the quality of education has not deteriorated but on the contrary, it has improved significantly.
“The results of the Akufo-Addo graduates in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 are the only years in the past decade that show that more than 50% of the candidates obtained A1 to C6 in all core subjects,” he stressed.