SMASCO: An example of a school needing intensive care

Abandoned projects, completely deteriorated roads, bushy environs and dormitories invaded by bed bugs are the sights that greet you when you step feet at the St Mary’s Seminary Senior High School.

A school that was once an example of excellence and pride of the Volta Region and for that matter the Catholic Church is now the pale shadow of itself.

ALSO READ: Funding for National Cathedral from private pockets – Committee member

And, perhaps if you were asked in an examination to give an example of “a school under distress and needing an intensive care”, you may do yourself a disservice by going past SMASCO as the minor seminary is affectionately called.

SMASCO has as many as five major abandoned projects, aside from the bad road networks that run through its campus as well as an absence of a wall to secure the school, headmaster, Rev  Father Paschal  Afesi, has disclosed.

The abandoned projects include an Assembly Hall, Administration Block, Classroom Blocks, Dormitories and a 20-seater Water Closet Toilet facility project.

ALSO READ: Man, 52, commits suicide after killing friend and two-year-old daughter

These projects, according to Rev. Father Afesi, started in the year 2012 but have failed to see any significant progress.

Last year, the school struggled to accommodate students as a result of the roll-out of the government’s Free Senior High School policy, Father Afesi revealed.

The absence of a wall has made the campus a home to reptiles of all kinds including snakes but as though these challenges are not enough, bed bugs appear to also pose a challenge to the school.

It is in the light of that some old students of the school, specifically, the 1990 year group led by Mr Newlove Adjei,  have fumigated the school’s dormitories to ward off the bed buds that have become a headache to the school’s management.

READ ALSO: A-G’s offices burgled; 5 laptops, printer, TV stolen

But like Oliver Twist, Rev. Father Afesi is asking for more from all stakeholders of the school including other past students’ groups, parents, the Catholic Church and the government.

He has specifically asked for her regarding the construction of a fence wall and the completion of some projects.

St Mary’s Seminary Senior High School is located at Lolobi in the Hohoe Municipality. It is a school that was established by the Catholic Church in 1961 before getting absorbed by the government of Ghana in 1977.

The school used to be among the top-five schools in the Volta Region and ranked highly on the national ranking but all that has become the story of a past glory as it no longer ranks well in the pecking order.