HAN SHS to Gain Boarding Status

HAN Senior High School (SHS) will be redesignated a boarding school once ongoing Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) projects at the facility, including boys’ and girls’ dormitories, are completed, President John Dramani Mahama has assured.

Inspecting the projects during his Resetting Ghana tour of the Upper West Region, the President said the school’s boarding status was contingent on completion of the dormitory facilities currently under construction.

“We are not going to give you boarding status without building the necessary facilities. We will provide boys’ and girls’ dormitories, so you should know that boarding status is definitely on the way,” he said.

He added that once contractors complete the projects, government will officially redesignate the school as a boarding school, after which it can begin admitting boarding students.

President Mahama explained that the move forms part of a broader policy shift away from the community day school model for schools in rural areas. 

He said the wide catchment areas of many rural schools make daily commuting difficult for students, a challenge that has informed the change in approach.

“However, we came to the realisation that, especially for schools in rural areas, the catchment areas are so wide that it makes it difficult for students to commute to school every day,” he said.

He recalled that E-blocks constructed during his previous term as President were intended to serve as community day schools, built on the assumption that students would live at home and travel to school each day.

“If you consider the E-blocks that were built around the same period during my previous term as President, the intention was for them to serve as community day schools,” he said.

President Mahama noted that government’s revised approach is to apply the community day school concept only in high-density population areas, where students can live at home and travel easily to school, while schools in rural communities with large catchment areas, like HAN SHS, will be converted into boarding schools so students can reside on campus.

HAN SHS was established as a Community Day Senior High School several years ago. 

The President noted that the five ongoing GETFund projects at the school, like all GETFund-financed work, are funded with the resources of Ghanaian taxpayers, and pledged that government would return to commission them once completed.

Richard Aniagyei, ISD