The Management of Breman Asikuma Senior High School (BASS) in the Central Region has begun a 2,400-capacity aquaculture project and acres of vegetables to feed students.
Expected to ease the teaching and learning of Agricultural Science for both Agric and non-Agric students, the intervention will also augment the feeding of nutritious meals to students.
The initiative is in line with the school’s ‘homegrown solution to home problems’ in commemoration of its 60th anniversary celebration in 2024.
Ms Sarah Baah-Odoom, the Headmistress of the school, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, commended the Ministry of Fisheries and Aqua Culture Development, Blue Skies Company, old students, staff, Methodist Church and the Ghana Education Service for their support.
Currently, she said the school had constructed four fishponds measuring 20 × 15 metres awaiting the arrival of the fingerlings for the aquaculture project to start.
She said aquaculture added to seafood, making it cheaper and accessible to all in
the district that depended on imported seafood products.
Through the support of Blue Skies Company, she said the school had started with students’ vegetable farms competition to ensure sustainable vegetables’ production all year round.
The competition involves using sustainable environmental practices, through which the school had been served with delicious garden eggs stew with banku on two occasions.
She said vegetables play a key role in food and nutrition security in Ghana, as the country’s food system had shifted from food quantity to diet quality and health benefits.
Additionally, she noted the school has large acreage of arable lands for the cultivation of staples to feed students, livestock feed, and the public to rake in more internally generated funds.
Ms. Baah-Odoom said agriculture was the mainstay of Ghana’s economy, therefore, it was prudent to embed agriculture in school’s curricula to maintain national food security.
Unfortunately, she indicated, agriculture continued to suffer from wron
g perceptions at it was often viewed as an inferior and non-academic profession.
However, ‘the sky is the limit for children when you combine agricultural education with a passion for living sustainably.’
Touching on other pertinent issues, she said the school that started with six students six decades ago had increased in population with 2,811, including 1,526 girls with768 day students as of November 2023.
Challenges included inadequate security personnel, staff accommodation, dormitories, place of convenience, incomplete fence wall, and library for students and staff.
Source: Ghana News Agency
