Education Ministry terminates 27 of Mahama’s E-block contracts
The Education Ministry says it has ensured the termination of contracts for the construction of some 27 Community Day Senior High Schools known as E-blocks across the country.
The government says others are however at various levels of completion and will be put to use once ready.
The Ministry on October 27 explained that “for 21 of them, we are very hopeful that they will be completed and operationalized soon. 16 of them are between 25% and 60% complete.”
These infrastructure projects started under the erstwhile Mahama administration took centre stage when the Chief of Aflao traditional area, Torgbui Amenya Fiti called on President Akufo-Addo to accelerate the construction of the school in his community to improve education in the area.
He had described the government’s approach to education as appalling and handed them a four-month ultimatum to operationalise the E-block facility.
“I am giving the Education Minister up till February [2022] for the school to be completed,” the chief said.
The President, during an interview on October 21, stressed that governance is a gradual process adding that the Chief could complete the facility if he was too frustrated to wait.
This caused a public uproar especially from indigenes of the Volta Regional town.
Others have also questioned the delay over the completion of the projects in other areas.
Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM on Wednesday, Head of Communication at the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng insisted that the conditions of some of the structures gave them no other alternative than to terminate the contract as many were “at sub-structural levels.”
“You award it to the contractor, and you don’t provide funding and the contractor can come to the site once and does not appear on site months later.
“The contracts have been terminated outrightly. For some of them, after 2 or 3 years, you see that the contract is still at 1% completion stage,” he said.
Meanwhile, an October 15 statement from the Ministry said that work is on course to fully complete the E-block in Agblekpui, Aflao in the Ketu-South District.
“Currently, the project is about 96% complete. The outstanding works include final painting and clearing of the site,” part of the communique read.
The E-block forms part of the NDC administration’s plan to build 200 Community Day Senior High Schools in the country to enhance access to secondary education.
Source: myjoyonline
