The journalist, Prince Kwame Tamakloe, who recorded the viral video of some students of the Ghana Senior High School in Tamale, sleeping in toilet cubicles, has rejected claims that the videos were staged.
This rejection comes up, after the Headmaster of the said school stated emphatically that the video was staged and he urged Ghanaians not to take heed to the words of the Headmaster because the students confirmed sleeping in the toilet cubicles, due what they claimed to be a lack of space to accommodate them in the dormitories.
Doughlas Haruna Yakubu, the Headmaster of GHANASCO, in an earlier interview, described the video as a deliberate misinterpretation of facts and mischievous.
Mr. Yakubu believes that the viral video was staged and dramatized, with the intentions of denting the image of the school, by the journalist. He further claimed that the school has adequate space to accommodate more students and does not need to convert toilet facilities into dormitories for students.
“That facility has been so, for many years. It has never been a dormitory or a storage room, it is a store, more or less. In the 60s when Kwame Nkrumah built the rooms, they were washrooms, and so they still have the design of washrooms. But the facility has not been modernized, so they are just small-small cubicles. And that is where we keep our chop boxes, when students are traveling.
“They are never sleeping places…these materials that you see, might have been taken from the dormitory for him [journalist] to cover his videos and leave. Those cubicles are so tiny and so hot that students cannot live in them. We have enough space, so this is not fair.”
Doughlas Haruna Yakubu
However, Mr. Tamakloe responding to the comments by Mr. Yakubu, claimed to have confronted the headmaster with his evidence, before the videos were released. He added that it is disingenuous for the headmaster to claim that students do not sleep in the toilet cubicles.
“The students told me that they have been sleeping there, and I asked for what reason, and they said due to lack of space. The videos that came out of the toilets that have been converted into dormitories, is just a teaser.
“It is unfortunate and funny to hear the headmaster say that it was staged. I went there during the day and picked these shots. If it was staged, I wouldn’t have taken videos of cubicles having mattresses and others not having one. I schooled at Tamale Senior High School and I know how things are done here.”
Prince Kwame Tamakloe
However, the Headmaster of the school has been asked to step aside by the Ghana Education Service, after the videos were made public.
GES Directs Mission To GHANASCO Over Washroom Accommodation Story
The Ghana Education Service (GES) sent a delegation on a fact-finding mission to the Ghana Senior High School in Tamale, to ascertain the veracity of reports that, toilet cubicles have been converted into an accommodation facility for boys of the institution.
This comes after the Ghana Education Service (GES) asked the headmaster and senior housemaster of the school to step aside, following a viral video, which indicated that students are using converted toilet cubicles as a boys’ dormitory.
The Ghana Education Service’s delegation to the school on Monday morning, which was made up of the Deputy Director General of GES, Stephen Kweku Owusu, the Acting Northern Regional Director of Education and others, inspected the said Gbanzaba dormitory and the cubicles, which were said to be toilet facilities and converted into accommodation.
The Deputy Director General of GES, Stephen Kwaku Owusu, speaking to the media said findings of their mission will be made public after the Director General is briefed.
“GES’ management attention was drawn to a video circulating in the media, regarding the management of GHANASCO putting students in a toilet. And we decided that the regional director should come down here, to verify the truth of the report. We have received a bit of the report, therefore, we decided to come from GES headquarters to find things for ourselves.
“In a way to corroborate with what is happening in the media or otherwise, that is why I’m here, detailed by the director general of GES to come to the school, to find out how the situation is…So that management can make a final decision on this. I will get back to my director and report to him, we will get back to the media on the next line of action.”
Deputy Director General of GES, Stephen Kwaku Owusu
Some students who spoke to the media, stated that “the actual fact, where they said is toilet is not actually toilet. There’s no feature indicating that it’s a toilet, no one sleeps there.”
Besides, some old students of the school also expressed disappointment in the report, insisting that there are enough bed spaces for students in the school. “We have more than enough space, accommodation for students isn’t a problem at all, let alone to force them to sleep on the floor of the toilet cubicles that were showcased to the whole public,” averred Alhaji Baba Yakubu, President of the school’s Old Students of Association.
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