There is no doubt that a 360-bed girls’ dormitory built by Gold Fields Ghana Foundation and handed over to Huni-Valley Senior High School (HUNIVASS) would help to facilitate teaching and learning.
As we reported on Monday this week, the new dormitory had already been handed over to the school after a grandiose ceremony at Huni-Valley in the Prestea-Huni-Valley Municipality in the Western Region.
Giving access to Senior High School (SHS) education without a conducive environment is not enough – a reason the two (access and conducive atmosphere) complement each other.
Reports indicate that 65% of the student population of HUNIVASS are female, with majority of them lodging in private hostels outside the school.
As a result of the Free Senior High School policy, enrolment in the schools hit the roof, thus putting pressure on the infrastructure on the campuses.
Due to the increasing number of students and the pressure on the limited facilities, some schools are converting dining halls into dormitories to ensure that students have places to lay their head. The government is doing her best to address the accommodation challenges, but it is obvious that support from the private sector is very much needed.
Most of these girls in SHS are teenagers, and it would not be good to expose them to living in private hostels where the school authorities are not able to take care of their welfare. As a result, some of these girls are exposed to social vices which can ruin their future.
It is as a result of this that The Chronicle congratulates the Gold Fields Ghana Foundation (GGF) for building a new girls’ dormitory for Huni-Valley Senior High School in the catchment area of the mining company.
The facility would not only help curtail the problem of female students staying outside campus, but will also help to increase boarding enrolment of girls in the school.
The 360-bed hostel facility has ironing room, chop box room and bathrooms constructed at an estimated cost of $980,000.
Indeed, the gold beneath the surface of Huni-Valley, and the Wassa Fiase Traditional area as a whole, will not be there forever, because it can get finished. The big question then is, how are the future generations going to benefit from the precious commodity after the mining companies have finished digging out all the gold?
It is our hope that other mining companies would emulate the shining example of Gold Field by going to the aid of institutions, especially government-assisted schools, in their catchment areas. Though precious minerals such as gold, diamond, manganese and others have contributed hugely to the development of our national economy, areas where these minerals are mined are simply living in abject poverty.
We believe it is some of these gestures that would help uplift them from their current low economic status, and that is why we are appealing to other mining companies to extend the same support to schools in their catchment areas.
