Snakes invade St. Paul SHS as 2 students have been bitten

Snakes invade St. Paul SHS and 2 students have already been bitten as authorities call for improved infrastructure. Ghana remains a reactive country where persons holding leadership positions do not see the need to take proactive actions but reactive ones which come only after harm has been done.

The calls from for government and the Ministry of Education to provide the needed infrastructure to the St. Paul SHS did not start today and complaints about the dangers of delay or neglect have been well documented.

The call by the students comes after two students of the school were bitten by a snake a couple of weeks ago.

Now, the lives of students and teachers are in grave danger as they share the school environment with snakes and other reptiles.

According to the students, incessant attacks by snakes and other reptiles at the various dormitories and the lack of other facilities at the school have made life very uncomfortable for them.

The school is therefore calling on the government to respond to the St. Paul’s Senior High School at Kwahu Asakraka in the Kwahu South Municipality call to attend to their basic but critical needs hampering smooth teaching and learning.

A section of the students who spoke to the media during a tree planting exercise over the weekend by the Member of Parliament of the aream Davis Opoku, appealed to the government to immediately step in.

“The last time, a snake bit one of my colleagues in the dormitory. In another house, we killed a number of snakes in a day. We are not comfortable at all. We want the authorities to come and assist us.”

The headmaster of the school, Paul Agbake who also took the opportunity to enumerate some of their challenges to the MP, urged him to do his best to help the school.

“The Headmaster lives outside the school. Only three of our members of the teaching and non-teaching staff are residents on campus. We do not have security here, so how can the teachers manage the over 1,300 students. This is hell to me.”

Meanwhile, the Eastern Regional Education Directorate, who has been reacting to the issues at St. Paul’s Senior High School, says there is no course for alarm.

“We are aware of the snake bites at St. Paul SHS years back. But when it comes to security, it is a problem in the entire system”, said Emmanuel Acheampong, Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Education Service in the Eastern Region.