The school’s population is growing with a population of about 1,500 science students with six science blocks which have a capacity to accommodate 30 students each at a time.

“The project will go a long way to help the school address the infrastructural challenges it is currently facing,” the President of the association, Professor Ernest Aryeetey, told the Daily Graphic after a health walk organised in Accra.

90th anniversary

The walk formed part of activities slated for the 90th anniversary of Achimota School on the theme: “Black, White and Heart…That All May Be One.”

These activities range from monthly symposia designed to share Achimotan thoughts on various aspects of Ghana’s national discourse guided by the theme of the celebration, to several fun and nostalgic activities that will serve as platforms to reunite long-lost peers, friends and family.

Some of the activities are monthly symposia dubbed: “Achimota Speaks,” which will include a series of various topical areas drawn from the theme of the anniversary.

Another activity slated for the year-long event is the Founder's Day celebration scheduled for March 3, 2017 to March 5, 2017 at the school (administration court).

Prof. Aryeetey said there would also be several fund-raising activities with the objective of raising a minimum of US$1 million seed money towards the construction of a wall and protect the school from encroachment as well as other “legacy projects”.

Speedy help

For her part, the Headmistress of the school, Mrs Beatrice Adom, appealed to the government to come to the aid of the school and help resolve the challenges confronting it to secure a conducive teaching and learning atmosphere for the students.

She said the school needed classrooms, boarding accommodation and furniture to create a conducive teaching and learning atmosphere, as well as a fence to save lives and property, and added that encroachment on the school’s  property was a real threat, “frightening and worrisome” to  members of the school’s community.

She said the institution had been battling with the issue of encroachment on its lands by churches, estate developers and the displaced residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, who have relocated and are occupying some portions of the school’s land.

According to her, there were a number of theft cases in the school last year, including the vandalisation of the renovated school kitchen and removal of louvre blades, electrical and plumbing fittings by intruders due to the problem of encroachment, which also put the security of the staff and students at risk.

The headmistress indicated that about 172.68 acres of the school land earmarked for expansion works had been taken over by encroachers.

The squatters, she said, were gradually getting closer to the school’s facilities, especially the newly constructed Millennium Dormitory Block.