SHS Reopening: Ashanti schools disinfect campuses as freshers report

Senior High Schools in the Ashanti Region are sprucing up facilities and undertaking disinfection exercises as first-year students report for the new academic year.

According to the Ministry of Education, over 527,000 qualified students have been placed in various schools, with reporting which started on September 18.

At Amaniampong SHS and St. Joseph SHS in the Mampong Municipality, authorities say they have recorded impressive turnout of freshers reporting to begin their second-cycle education.

To ease congestion, management of Amaniampong SHS scheduled reporting in batches while preparing dormitories and classrooms to make them habitable.

The school partnered with the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and LCB Worldwide Ghana Limited, a biosecurity company, to fumigate and disinfect the campus.

Headmistress of the school, Mrs. Esther Osei-Owusu, said bed bug infestation has been a persistent challenge.

"Bed bugs have been one of our challenges. It is really affecting the running of the administration. When students come from their various houses they come with these bed bugs, it becomes a very big challenge for the school," she lamented.

She expressed optimism that the disinfestation will give students a conducive environment to rest after studies.

A similar exercise was carried out at St. Joseph SHS, where classrooms, dormitories and open gathering points were disinfected.

President of GUTA, Clement Boateng, said the exercise forms part of the association's corporate social responsibility.

"Over the years GUTA has embarked on this operation with LCB as their corporate social responsibility to also help in such programs to the benefit of the community. We have embarked on a series of these programs, we've been spraying markets, we've been spraying schools and today is the turn of secondary schools," he said.