Cattle threatening lives of students at Swedru Senior High

Cattle threatening lives of students at Swedru Senior HighGrazing cattle are threatening the lives of Agriculture Science students of the Swedru Senior High School as they have turned the school’s farm into a grazing ground.

With the school’s wall still under construction, the herdsmen take advantage and lead their cattle to the school farm to feed while students are having their practical lessons.

Mrs Golda Andam, the Headmistress of the school, who disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Agona Swedru, said the animals, known to behave dangerously at times, entered the farms suddenly and the students and tutors “had to flee for their dear lives in all directions, sometimes sustaining injuries.”

She said the situation had created some fear in the students and their teachers, however, all efforts by the school’s management to stop the herdsmen and their cattle from entering the farms had proved futile.

Mrs Andam, therefore, appealed for urgent support from all stakeholders to help complete the walls to ensure the safety of the school community.

The school runs purely agriculture courses and the frequent invasion of the school farm by the cattle was worrying, she said, adding that the noise they made also made it difficult for the students to concentrate on their studies.

Aside the invasion by the cattle, the Headmistress said some parents took undue advantage to use the uncompleted wall as unapproved route to visit their children outside the visiting hours, against school rules and regulations.

She said some intruders also used the same route to enter the girls’ dormitories to sell all kinds of unprescribed sandals, make-up and other items to the girls, creating insecurity, which was a big challenge to the management.

Other challenges the school faced included inadequate teachers’ bungalows, as only 40 out of the 160 tutors had accommodation on campus, making supervision very difficult.

Mrs Andam said the Board of Governors had concluded plans to motivate donors to build at least two tutors’ bungalows for the school and inscribe their names on them.

She appealed to the GetFUND to impress on the contractor who built the new girls’ dormitory to hand it over to the management to enable the girls to use it.

Source: GNA