K’dua SECTECH students sleep at dining hall as bedbugs invade rooms

The Headmaster of Koforidua Senior High Technical School (SECTECH), in the Eastern Region, Samuel Prince Folley, has stated that bedbug infestation in the school sometimes compels students to sleep in the school’s dining hall.

Mr Folley said with the high incidence of bug infestation, students found it extremely difficult to sleep, especially at night, adding that the situation was also having a toll on their academic work.

Mr Folley said this during a fumigation and disinfection exercise in senior high schools (SHSs) in the Eastern Region on Thursday, May 8, 2020, by Zoomlion Ghana Limited.

The exercise formed part of efforts by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to rid SHSs in the country of bedbugs, and to also help contain the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic when students are called back.

About 14 SHSs were covered on the day, and these included Koforidua Senior High Technical School, Oyoko Methodist SHS, Universal SHS, Oti Boateng SHS, SDA SHS, Liberty Specialist Institute, Hyundai Koica Technical Institute and Pope John SHS.

The rest were Ghana SHS, New Juaben SHS, Moses Accountancy SHS, New Juaben College of Commerce, School For Deaf and Pentecost SHS. Aside from the issue of bedbugs, Mr Folley indicated that his school was also grappling with how to deal with rodents.

Against that backdrop, he commended GES and Zoomlion Ghana Limited for the initiative. He was upbeat that the exercise would help rid the school of bedbugs and rodents.

On fighting Covid-19, the headmaster of SECTECH disclosed that the school had bought a number of Veronica buckets, soaps and alcohol-based hand sanitisers. He said these would be placed at vantage points to enable the students use them as part of measures to contain the spread of the virus.

However, he admitted that it would be difficult for the students to observe the social/physical distancing protocol, attributing that to high student population and the lack of adequate dormitories.

At the Pentecost Senior High School, the Headmaster, Mr Peter Atta Gyamfi, described the exercise as “timely”, adding that it would help get rid of bedbugs from the school. He, therefore, urged the GES to periodically ensure the fumigation of SHSs periodically.

He stated that the coronavirus pandemic had affected students, particularly those in their final year. That notwithstanding, he said he was hopeful that things would return to normalcy when academic work resumed.

For his part, the Headmaster of Oyoko Methodist SHS, Mr Frank Nkum Eyiah, indicated that his administration had put in place a plan that would adequately prepare the final year students for their examinations.

He said a similar package would be made available to cater for SHS 1 and SHS 2 students to help them catch up with what they had lost over the period.