Akwa Ibom: St Theresa Secondary School, Edem Ekpad In Dire Need of Government Intervention
The name St Theresas' Secondary School, Edem Ekpad , Etinan local government area used to be a household name in the erstwhile Cross River State.
It ranked among the best girls only public secondary schools then. Though a mission school, its Roman Catholic background resonates well with the girls.
The products of the school were comparable to their counterparts in the country as the roll call of their ex- girls bears testimony to this.
Today, the school , apart from the serene ambience it is still situated, there is nothing to write home about basic infrastructures in the school.
The old administrative block is a shadow of itself. Its dilabitating condition depicts the hopelessness that the school is.
The school is urgently in need of a perimeter fence to reinforce confidence and security for both students and staff. All the seven hostels blocks have been taken over by a thick forest with one of the buildings serving as a stark reminder of the good old days even as a lonely double bunk bed completes the reminder process.
The female staff quarters is an eyesore though a concerted effort by the old students renovated one of the hostel blocks for use by corps members . The renovated hostel block which was to serve the corps members is lying idle because of the porous security situation in the school community.
The classrooms are not left out in the ruins as most of the roofs have carved in leaving the students to be crammed into the few available blocks that bears the stamp of UBE. The library is none existence just like the male staff quarters across the road.
Edem Ekpad on its own, though linked to the national grid, has not seen electric light in the last six years because of a faulty transformer.
Information available indicates that the state government, had sometime last year, released funding for the upgrading of the school but the money was diverted by certain government officials to rehabilitate a nearby school in another community probably because the said government official hails from that area.
If the state government revisits the school, it will help decongest public schools in the state metropolis and will also complements the aging Etinan Institute.
