Government To Construct Sports-Inclined Schools

Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, the Minister of Youth and Sports, on Thursday said the government would build a multi-disciplinary sports-inclined senior high school in each region as part of its programme to deliver 200 new second-cycle institutions. He said such schools would be a one-point state-of-the-art school that would encompass all sporting disciplines including football, baseball, basketball, handball and not too familiar ones like rugby. Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said this at Kpando at the start of a two-day inspection tour of some sporting facilities in the Volta Region that took him to the Anfoega SHS and the dilapidated Kpando Stadium. He said the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (AESL) had handed over designs to the Ministry for study. The Minister said major stakeholders including the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and members of the general public were to make inputs into the designs and the curriculum. Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said it was President John Dramani Mahama�s view that this would revive the dwindling fortunes in sports at that level which, until recently, was a reservoir for unearthing and nurturing talents. On the Kpando Stadium, Mr Afriyie-Ankrah said the government was committed to rehabilitating and upgrading the facility to acceptable levels. He said the contractor who built the handball court at the Anfoega SHS should return to site and complete other components of the project. Togbuiga Dagadu VIII, Paramount Chief of Akpini Traditional Area who accompanied the Minister and some technocrats from the National Sports Council to inspect the facilities, said several correspondence and follow-ups between the traditional authorities and the management of the Kpando Municipal Assembly in the past yielded no results. He said the Municipality continued to be the bastion of sports in the Region since 1920 but teams operated from a deplorable stadium with sub-standard structures. Togbuiga Dagadu said fencing of the inner perimeter of the playing field to quality the venue for premier league matches was depriving the SHS from using the facility which has broken fence walls, uneven and sometimes grassless pitch and no seats for spectators. He said a 26-acre land was available for development into a modern stadium and encroachers were fast prying on the land and that a modern stadium in the area would revive sporting activities. Mr Francis Ganyaglo, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, urged the people to rally their support behind government as it delivers on its promises.