Mahama: Gov’t to build 30 new E-Blocks under STARR-J project
President John Dramani Mahama has announced plans to construct 30 new E-Block secondary schools across the country under the government’s STARR-J project.
According to the President, the new schools will be constructed from scratch, separate from the abandoned E-Block projects currently being completed by his administration.
President Mahama said a significant number of the new E-Blocks would be located in high-population-density communities, particularly in major cities, to serve as community day schools and allow students to attend secondary school closer to their homes.
“Under the STARR-J project, we’re going to build another 30 new E-Blocks. These ones, 30 from the scratch. The ones I talked about, we’re finishing the abandoned ones. We’re going to build another 30 new E-Blocks across the country,” he said.
He explained that while the new E-Blocks would largely target densely populated areas, several E-Blocks constructed during his previous administration are located in rural districts, where students travel from different communities across the districts.
President Mahama said the government was therefore converting some of those rural schools into boarding institutions to address the difficulty students face in commuting long distances to school.
He announced that the completed E-Block at Paga would be absorbed into the boarding system from the next academic year.
President Mahama made the remarks during the commissioning of the completed E-Block project at Paga in the Upper East Region as part of his Resetting Ghana Tour.
He said the expansion and conversion of selected E-Blocks were part of government’s broader efforts to expand access to secondary education and provide suitable learning facilities for students across the country.
