The school and management board of the Sogakofe Senior High School (SOGASCO) in the South Tongu District of the Volta Region have meted out a stringent punishment to 35 boarding male students for leaving school without exeat.
The students had been grouped into five and positioned at different locations on the school�s compound to dig a pit of about five feet deep which would be used as a dumping site for the school.
The students confessed to The Finder that they travelled to OLA Girls� Senior High School in Ho to celebrate the Students� Representative Council (SRC) week.
They admitted that their action broke rules as, according to them, they did not seek permission from their senior house master and school authorities before travelling from Sogakofe to Ho for the SRC Week celebration about a fortnight ago.
One of the students told this reporter: �Sir, we deserve the punishment after we had had the guts to go to OLA to enjoy ourselves without the prior permission of our school authority. We went to jams because that week was for the SRC in the region�s capital.�
They said they were not allowed to miss classes �so what happens is that we come to have our break time here in our pits. And when the drum is beaten for break over, we go back to join our mates to study. We come back to our galamsey pit to continue with our digging after school hours�.
As at Saturday, they had dug the pit to about three feet deep and they said they hope to complete digging the full depth within the 10 days� completion period the school authority had set for them.
The digging, they said, started on Wednesday.
Attempts to reach the senior housemaster of SOGASCO were unsuccessful as he was believed to be out of town.
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