US Ambassador to Ghana Donald Teitelbaum and the Honorable Alfred Oko Vanderpuye, Chief Executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, broke ground today for a new building at Kotobabi Abavana Cluster of Schools, one of four major school infrastructure projects being jointly funded by the American people and the Government of Ghana. The school construction project is scheduled for completion in November 2012. Four communities in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly are each receiving a three-story, 18- Unit Classroom Block Complex to help expand access to education. Improvements to the four Basic School Compounds will eliminate the need to use the ‘shift system’ according to the vision of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly and Metropolitan Education Unit. The new schools will accommodate approximately 2200 school children, and will include libraries and science and computer laboratories. The projects span three sub-metropolitan areas. The beneficiary schools are: Kotobabi Abavana Cluster of Schools in Kotobabi, Accra Salvation Army Cluster of Schools in Mamprobi, Accra Zamramaline Line Cluster of Schools in Laterbiokoshie, Accra Okpoti Cluster of Schools in Dansoman, Accra The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided a grant of $2.3 million to the Government of Ghana for the construction of these school complexes. The Government, through Accra Metropolitan Assembly, is co-funding the project with $700,000, a 29% match. Geotechnical / Geomatic site surveys as well Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan were prepared for all the sites prior to commencement of construction.