Dr Kwabena Opoku-Adusei, former President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), said the impunity with which lands earmarked for educational purposes were encroached upon needed to halt.

“It is important that we salvage our school lands from being taken over by some few greedy citizens for the sake of educational prosperity”, he told a meeting of the Old Students’ Association of the Osei Kyeretwie Senior High School (SHS), Kumasi.

The event coincided with the launch of the 80th Anniversary and Homecoming Summit of the Association (Ahenemma), slated for June, this year, under the theme “Mobilising Resources to achieve academic and sports excellence - the Role of Stakeholders.”

Dr Opoku-Adusei, who is also President of the Association, decried how educational institutions, including Kumasi Girls’ SHS, New Asafo M/A Basic School, Amankwatia M/A Basic School and Bantama Presbyterian Basic School, all in the Kumasi metropolis, had been encroached with gross disrespect for laws of the nation.

Osei Kyeretwie SHS had over the years seen massive encroachment on its property, with about one-third of its present land at Old-Tafo been virtually taken over by estate and other property developers.

Acquired in 1971, the 168 acre land mass is currently left with only about 58 acres.

Dr Opoku-Adusei hinted that the school authorities acting in partnership with the Metropolitan Assembly had made some progress in reclaiming the stolen property.

In excess of 200 housing units considered to have been illegally constructed on the school land, he said, had in the last two years been demolished to pave way for infrastructural development by the school authorities.

He said plans were far advanced to fence the school campus in order to ward off encroachers.

Dr Charles Marfo, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), and a member of the Association, challenged products of the school to serve as mentors for the younger generation of students.

This, he said, was necessary to keep the students focused on their books to help them in acquiring the requisite knowledge and skills for their personal development.

The Dean further advised his colleagues with the relevant teaching qualifications to strive to apply for teaching appointments at their alma mater since they understood the working culture better.