In the early hours of April 17th, thieves broke into the ICT lab of Okuapeman Senior High School in the Akuapem North Municipality and made away with 10 desktop computers, 4 laptops, and a sound system. These items were primarily used by visually impaired students, and the theft has left the school in a difficult situation.
According to a senior management member of the school, the theft will greatly impact the preparation of the visually impaired students for the upcoming WASSCE exams, which are only three months away. He stated that “Even before this incident, our computers were not enough, it did not even make the number and now this has happened and it will exacerbate our situation especially when we have WASSCE in 3 months. We don’t have computers and a sound system, so it will affect our preparation towards the WASSCE and the conduct of the exams itself.”
The school is now appealing to the government, corporate organizations, NGOs, and philanthropists to assist them in replacing the stolen computers and sound system. The senior management member added that “We would want to appeal to the general public, and government through the Ministry of Education, corporate Ghana, NGOs’ and churches that this is an emergency, and we need their support as soon as possible to come to our side with about 20 desktop computers and 10 laptop computers before July so we can prepare the visually impaired students for the WASSCE exams, and we will also need a good sounds system for oral English and lectures at the centre when we get these items our visually impaired students will prepare well for the exams to enable them to excel.”
This incident is a reminder of the importance of securing school facilities and equipment, especially those used by vulnerable groups such as visually impaired students. The school is working with local authorities to investigate the incident and apprehend the perpetrators.