By Elorm Yao Aryee
Management of OLA Girls Senior High School in Ho has appealed to the government to assist the school in dealing with its infrastructure deficits.
The school has not seen significant infrastructure development in the past few years, despite its increasing student population.
The Headmistress of the OLA Girls SHS, Benedicta Agbezudor, who made the appeal, said there is an urgent need for new infrastructure projects to augment the existing ones, which are not spacious for the current students’ population. She was speaking at the climax of the 70th anniversary celebration of the school in Ho.
Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) Senior High School was established by the Catholic Church at Keta on 1st February 1954 with 35 students and three teachers. The school was later relocated to its present site at Ho in 1956 and now has over four thousand students and 200 staff.
OLA Girls SHS has since produced several individuals who have contributed to Ghana’s development in every sector of the economy. Classified amongst the “Grade A” Schools, OLA Girls SHS has over the years had an excellent record in WASSCE and other academic and extracurricular competitions.
Despite the achievements, the school is grappling with infrastructural challenges, key amongst them, inadequate dormitories, classroom blocks, and vehicles. The school’s assembly, dining halls, and kitchen lack enough space for use.
The Headmistress of OLA Girls SHS, Benedicta Agbezudor, said the challenges have been impediments to academic work and life in general at the school.
The wife of the Vice President, Samira Bawumia, who was the guest of honour pledged to ensure that management’s appeals for infrastructure development are resolved by the appropriate government agencies. She urged heads of educational institutions to leverage technology and entrepreneurship to groom students to benefit from their advantages in the future.
The Catholic Bishop of Ho Diocese, Most Rev. Emmanuel Fianu, urged the government to incorporate faith-based organisations in making decisions that affect institutions which were established by such organisations. The 70th anniversary celebration of OLA Girls SHS was themed, “Reminiscing 70 Years of Holistic Catholic Education, the Role of Stakeholders in Embracing Technology, and Entrepreneurship for the Future. It was attended by members of the Past OLA Girls Association POGA, heads of institutions, and the clergy, among others.
Meanwhile, the Past OLA Girls Association (POGA) has cut the sod for the commencement of a dormitory for their alma mater in Ho.
The legacy project is to augment existing dormitories to provide enough space for students.
POGA has been instrumental in their alma mater’s development.
The ground-breaking ceremony was led by the wife of the Vice President, Samira Bawumia, who was accompanied by the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, Ghana’s Ambassador to Germany, Mrs Gina Blay, who is an old student, and officials from the Ghana Education Service, among others.
