The Saint John Technical Institute in Nandom in the Upper West Region has been grappling with a water crisis following a malfunction of the school’s water supply system.
This was disclosed by the Vice Principal Administration, Callistus Kog on July 10, 2024, when the founder of the Sangu Delle Foundation, Dr. Sangu Delle donated two brand air conditioners for the school’s ICT Laboratory.
Mr. Callistus bemoaned the many challenges facing the school which is affecting teaching and learning.
He said, “for about three weeks now classes have not been effective due to the water crises. These days, there is no more discipline on campus. Students go to town with gallons and buckets walking about and when I see them, I don’t want people to recognize they are my students so I turn my face and look elsewhere. You can not tell them to return to school because they need the water.”
“Some of them pretend as though they are going to look for water but in fact, they are going to do their own things. They return in the evening in the name of searching for water. We are appealing to you to come to our aid in solving this pressing need” he added.
One student who spoke on condition of anonymity shared his daily struggles before he can get water to bath.
“Bathing twice a day is now a luxury. I carry my gallon around in search of water every evening. I need to get water before the following day else I will be late for class. It is not possible to go looking for water in the morning because I might miss lessons and this will affect my performance during the exam” he explained.
Some of us spend the whole day in search of water, said another student.
“I have never experienced this kind of situation in this school and this is now affecting our students. These days, it is common to find students with buckets and yellow gallons all outside campus in search of water” she explained.
The idea of starting a Vocational School in Nandom was mooted by Br. John Van Winden (F. I. C) when he arrived from the Netherlands in 1968 to build Nandom Secondary School.
At that time there was a lack of qualified craftsmen in the area to do the job. Br. John Van Winden had to travel to the southern part of Ghana to recruit craftsmen to do the construction work.
Many young men completed the then Middle School standard of education and did not have any meaningful work to do because the educational system at that time did not prepare the Middle School leavers for the job market. The only option for these young men to earn a living was to drift to the southern part of Ghana to look for non-existent jobs.
Br. Winden set out to establish what he called at the time Nandom Practical Vocational Centre (NPVC) in 1973. The name was later changed to Nandom Vocational School (NVS) and now St. John Technical Institute. He subsequently became the first principal of the school until 1986.
The school, with the support of the then Bishop of Wa, now late Cardinal Peter Porekuu Dery started the trade “Rural Building”, a combination of masonry and carpentry work started with an initial intake of fifteen (15) trainees in 1973.
The trade “Rural Mechanics” consisting of diesel engines; black smithery and hand pump maintenance was also introduced in 1980 with an intake of twelve (12) trainees.
In 1986, the centre received the government’s approval to operate under the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) and in 2010, it was absorbed into the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the TVET service rolled out by the government has increased enrolment figures of the school.
This has not only overstressed the facilities beyond their limits but has made it difficult to manage the large class sizes.
On school performance, there has always been an improvement in the NABPTEX and TEU results due to the measures management put in place to augment performance.
The school’s enrolment figures stand at about 867 which includes both males and females.
The staff strength of the school stands at eighty-eight (88). Forty-eight (48) are teaching and forty (40) non-teaching.
The school currently offers six programs: Building Construction Technology; Wood Construction Technology; Plumbing & Gas Fitting; Welding & Fabrication Technology; Automotive Engineering and Electrical Engineering.
Mohammed ABDULAI – Nandom, Upper West Region.
