Mr. Edward Kofi Fudzi, Principal, Ho School of Hygiene, has observed that students were unwilling to enrol in the School due to inadequate hostel facilities and science and computer laboratories for practicals.
He said the non-payment of allowances, as done to all health training institutions was also causing a decline in admissions from around 180 to 120 in the School.
Mr Fugi said this at a matriculation ceremony for 127 students made up of 78 females and 49 males for certificate and diploma courses in environmental health.
The School is housed in an uncompleted 12-unit classroom block at its permanent site with wooden scaffolds flying over classrooms.
There are no lights in the classrooms, floors undone and no sanitation facilities with students dashing to their hostels, metres away to use the toilet.
Weeks ago, some students told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that the school environment was not conducive for quality teaching and learning and urged government to expedite action on the GETFund project.
Ms Bernice Sakra, a level 300 Student said it seemed government had neglected issues relating to the training of sanitation officers because they had stayed in rented apartment for many years and were still struggling with issues of allowances.
“We are not happy at all. Look at the facilities of the University of Health and Allied Sciences and see what we are using. We can’t wait forever. We also need our classrooms completed,” she said.
Mr Fudzi asked the fresh students not to be worried about the School’s infrastructure and the environment but focus on studies.
He urged them to be law abiding and take good care of the School’s facilities, saying, they only appealed to the contractor to manage the facility awaiting its completion.
Madam Sefakor Kumedzro, a Staff of Volta Regional Environmental Health Office underscored the importance of Environmental Health Offices to the rapid socio-economic development of the country.
She said whiles it was the duty of a nurse to attend to sick people; it was the task of the environmental health officer to prevent people from contracting diseases.
Madam Kumedzro said the country was engulfed in filth as 16,200 tons of waste was generated yearly with five million people defecating in the open and challenged the students to come out as agents to end the menace.