A 300-bed capacity dormitory block of the Navrongo Senior High School (NAVSCO) in the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region has been refurbished.

The girls’ dormitory, although, originally a boys’ dormitory known as ‘Independence-Luther King’s House’, also had its washrooms and bathhouses renovated at a total cost of ¢74,485, borned by the contributions of former mates of the house of the school.

The Head of the Renovation Committee and a former member of the house, George Adeyiga noted that the gesture was part of their contribution to developing their alma mater and as part of activities towards the celebration of the school’s 60th Anniversary later this year.

The celebration was initially scheduled to take place in 2020 but was cancelled due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, so it has now been scheduled to come off in October, 2021.

He explained that the idea to renovate the house and its attached facilities was started in 2018 during the homecoming of the old students. So, the first appeal for fund was launched to gather resources from old housemates.

He expressed the hope that the facility would create a decent living environment for the students to propel effective academic work.

The Global President of the Old Students of NAVSCO, Mohammed Haroon, also known as ‘Nabia’, expressed gratitude to former housemates of the Independence-Luther King House for the gesture and said it was the commitment and resilience of old students to develop the school.

The Global President, affectionately known by his peers as ‘Cambodia’, noted that the renovation of the house was part of an initiative launched four years by the old students’ union to have all old structures in the school renovated either by former housemates or year groups.

“Right now, our major project is the construction of a clinic for the school which is at the roofing stage and it is solely sponsored by former students of NAVSCO, Nabia. We also have in future to build a national secretariate for the old NAVSCANS,” he added.

Alhaji Haroon advocated stakeholder approach to address the poor performance the school was recording over the past five years.

The Paramount Chief of the Navrongo Traditional Area, another former housemate of the Independence-Luther King’ House, Navro-pio, Pe Dennis Anakwoa Belinia Asagpaare Adda II, explained that the performance of the school in recent years was poor and pledged to award ¢2,000 to any female student who would score As in all subjects in the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and in 2022.

On her part, the Headmistress of the school, Mercy Babachuweh who expressed gratitude for the refurbished dormitory on behalf of the management and students of the school noted that the old students' support over the years on numerous projects and urged the students to be disciplined and study hard to ensure academic excellence.

She, however, appealed to the old students to continue to support the school as it was faced with infrastructure challenges and poor state of existing infrastructure.

“We have furniture challenge because this academic year we relied on the Parents Teachers Association to reconstruct 200 furniture for us and that is what is helping us to be able to write the WASSCE, our administration block, other dormitories and classrooms need to be renovated,” she said.