CREP Raises Alarm Over a Deepening Education Emergency at Amasaman SHTS

The Centre for Research in Education Policy (CREP) is deeply disturbed by the state of infrastructure and learning conditions at Amasaman Senior High Technical School (Amasaman SHTS) in the Greater Accra Region. What is unfolding at the school is not a matter of inconvenience. It is a clear case of systemic neglect and a painful contradiction to Ghana’s declared commitment to quality education.

Greater Accra is the administrative and political heart of the country. It hosts Parliament, the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, and the offices of GETFund. Yet within this same region, a public senior high technical school operates under conditions that undermine safety, dignity, and learning. This reality forces a troubling national question. How can a school in Greater Accra suffer this way?

Amasaman SHTS is grappling with a severe shortage of desks, leaving students to learn in dehumanising conditions. Several classroom blocks are dilapidated, with perforated iron sheet roofing that renders teaching impossible whenever it rains, as students are displaced and lessons interrupted. Even under clear skies, intense heat in classrooms turns learning into a daily struggle.

The situation for teachers is equally distressing. Due to the inadequacy and congestion of staff facilities, teachers are often forced to sit under trees to rest, prepare lessons, and hold professional discussions. This is not only undignified but demoralising for educators entrusted with shaping the nation’s future. School administration is also affected, as Assistant Headmasters operate from poor office structures, weakening effective management.

The school has no dormitory facilities, compelling students from distant communities to rely on private hostels at high cost and with limited supervision. In addition, Amasaman SHTS has no assembly hall and no dining hall, exposing students to harsh weather conditions during assemblies and meals.

Of particular concern is the near collapse of science and ICT education at the school. The science laboratory has no electricity and insufficient equipment, making practical science instruction almost impossible. The computer laboratory is constrained by a serious shortage of computers, denying students the digital skills required in today’s technology driven world. At a time when national policy prioritises STEM and technical education, Amasaman SHTS is being asked to produce future technicians and innovators without the basic tools.

CREP stresses that this situation is especially alarming because it exists in Greater Accra, not in a remote or hard to reach community. If a school located within close proximity to national decision making centres can be left in such a state, then the problem is not geography. It is policy failure, weak accountability, and neglect.

CREP therefore urgently calls on GETFund, the Ministry of Education, and the Ghana Education Service to treat the situation at Amasaman SHTS as an emergency requiring immediate and sustained intervention. The school needs rehabilitation of existing structures, provision of furniture, functional laboratories, and the construction of essential facilities.

CREP also calls on the Member of Parliament for the Trobu Constituency, under which Ga North falls, to actively lobby for the provision of critical infrastructure for the school. Representation must result in visible improvements in the lives of students and teachers.

Finally, CREP appeals to old students, civil society organisations, NGOs, corporate bodies, and well meaning Ghanaians to support Amasaman SHTS. Education is a shared national responsibility, and silence in the face of such neglect is complicity.

A school where students lack desks, laboratories lack power, and teachers sit under trees to work is not merely under resourced. It is a reflection of a system that has failed to protect one of its most vital institutions. If this can happen in Greater Accra, then no public school is truly safe from neglect. CREP insists that the time for sympathy has passed. What is required now is urgent action.