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Two Campus System poses danger to students of St. Benedict Technical Institute.

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Education is the key to success, they say and every Ghanaian child of school going age has the right to education but not when trying to educate yourself exposes you to danger. Such is the situation at the St. Benedict Technical Institute at Navrongo in the Kasena/Nankana East Municipality of the Upper East Region which runs a two-way campus system.

Daily, students move between the two campus of the school on the opposite sides of the Navrongo -Bolgatanga ECOWAS road to take lessons and have their meals. This has exposed students to dangers including getting knocked down by heavy duty vehicles that ply the road, especially during night hours when students have to across over to “campus 2 (Annex)” to observe preps.

Snake bites, tiredness, loss of contact hours to walking from one side to the other and harassment by men have also been named as some unpleasant ordeals the students have had to put up with as a result of the two-way campus system.

Checks by A1 News showed that students cross the busy road more than eight times a day to and from both campuses. Checks also revealed a situation in which a student of the school was nearly killed by a vehicle in the past few weeks this term.

Speaking exclusively to the news team, some of them expressed their worry about the issue which is a threat staring directly in their faces. To them, they know it’s just a matter of time before a student get knocked down and killed by vehicles. They appealed to government to provide them with the same environment their colleagues in other school enjoy.

“Generally, we have two campuses. One is called Annex and the other is the main. The electrical, fashion departments and the administration block are found at the main. We have lessons and eat our food at the annex. The road divides both them and this causes a lot of problems for us because anytime we are going to the annex for breakfast and classes. We have to cross the road and if you are not careful, you can get knocked down by cars.

We prep at the annex in the night. At night, we use the Catholic road because the “bush road is dangerous during that time. The “bush road” is shorter but also have snakes in the shrubs. Men also harass us at night especially if you are a girl” a student told our reporter.

Azerigyik Robert Awenlimari is the Principal of the school. He told the News team via a phone call how the problems is of much worry to management of the school.

He mentioned that finding a solution to the routine practice of crossing the road by students to the other campus (Annex) for their meals and lessons started long ago and is still on. He revealed that he has personally made several efforts in written form to authorities including follow ups but that, he said is yet to bear positive results.

” I have written several (he emphasized) letters to the municipal assembly, GES and many others but nothing has been done about our situation. We don’t have the infrastructure that will help us stay on one side of the campus” Mr. Azerigyik said.

He blamed authorities for turning a blind eye to the challenges faced by the school. “The people in authority know about our problems. They use that road like you and I. They know the dangers the students go through. But they have turned a blind eye and pretending to know nothing about the situation”

He prayed against the unforeseen as in the case of an accident involving his students and noted that no child should suffer for no fault of theirs since access to education is a right for all. He also appealed to the Government of Ghana to approve certificates of the Chinese contractor working on projects of the school that stalled some time ago due to that.

St Benedict Technical Institute uses an old campus facility of the Our Lady of Lourdes Senior High School, which has relocated to a new campus in Gaani, in addition to their main campus. Management made the decision to have an annex campus after little infrastructure on the main campus failed to match up with the increased number in enrolment.

A1Radio News|A1radioonline.com|Ghana.

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