Final-year students of some senior high schools in the Ashanti Region are yet to report to school though their teachers are back from the nationwide teacher union strike.
Many of the students, according to authorities, returned home owing partly to the recent shortages of food supply in most senior high schools.
At the Kumasi Senior High Technical School, students numbering over three hundred are yet to report to school after the Eid-break with a majority of the absentees being final year students.
On any normal school day, the Kumasi Secondary Technical School buzzes with lots of students on campus but the situation has been different for the past week.
Student attendance at the school has been low since the resumption from the Eid holiday. Headmaster of KSTS, Andrew Boateng says “the form twos ended their semester last Friday. We did a reopening for them on Monday, so they are starting their second semester. They were almost full in class today. But the form threes out of the 1,000 plus at least more than three hundred are yet to come. When they finished their mock, because of the teachers’ strike some took advantage and took exeat to go home”.Teachers at the school are presently racing against time to adequately prepare students for the WASSCE, which begins in a month’s time.
But authorities fear the one-third absence of final year students might affect the general performance of the school in the external exam.
The school is therefore urging parents and guardians to allow their wards to report to school.
“Teachers have resumed work, they are school teaching. I am appealing to the parents to send their wards back to school. Because foodstuffs are coming, we have food to feed them. So they should come because WASSCE is very close. Teachers was to discuss mock, to teach and prepare them adequately for the exams,” the headmaster added.
