FOR SALE: LAND FOR GHANA SCHOOL OF SURVEY AND MAPPING

Nii Osah Mills, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources

Barring any hitches, the land for Ghana School of Survey & Mapping would be handed over to ADK Consortium, an engineering company responsible for overseeing the construction of a Corporate Head office for Lands Commission and in return get a ten (10) Acre part of the same land as reward which they intent to construct Shopping Mall with.

This comes at a time when the country do not have enough Tertiary Education facilities to absolve the over qualified Senior Secondary School students each year.

The President of the Republic of Ghana has it at heart to promote and upgrade the educational sector. The removal of schools under trees, construction of the community schools and upgrading of Polytechnics into Universities are all indications of the President’s vision.

The Ghana School of Survey & Mapping is one of the few special tertiary schools in the country and under the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources. Other tertiary schools of note are Mount Mary Training College (French); Kwadaso Training College (Agric); St Mary Training College (Home Science) to mention a few.

The Ghana School of Survey & Mapping stands on a fifteen Acre land at “37” adjacent to the 37 Military Hospital, to the north bounded by the Golden Tulip Hotel and to the west by a road bypass to Alliance Francaise and which has been registered with a land certificate by a former Principal of the school. On this land stands Major Gordon Guggisberg’s 1919 monumental building who was also the first land surveyor in Ghana.

President John Dramani Mahama

It is in this building that the Ghana School of Survey & Mapping is run. This building also houses the Photogrammetry (Air Survey for preparing topographic maps) and Remote Sensing (Space Survey with Satellite Imagery) Unit. Again is found the National Instrumentation Unit for testing, calibration and repair of survey instruments there. There is also the National Geodetic Reference Network (GRN) a system that runs a twenty-four hour; seven days (24/7) Continues Operating Reference System (CORS). This CORS serves as the base coordinated survey reference station forming part of the national triangulated network system in the country from where other densified survey control points are generated for carrying out survey work in Accra and other parts of Ghana.

During the Speech and Price Giving Day celebration of Achimota School recently, the Headmistress proudly acknowledged the presence of one of the monumental buildings on which the Achimota Tower stands. On the Ghana School of Survey & Mapping compound are several survey coordinated pillars planted for the purpose teaching survey practicals, doing survey work and for the testing of survey instruments. One of the pillars, the TP3 was build in line with the Achimota Tower as two (2) points of reference for every surveyor and his instrument. This has been the reference point for most surveys in Greater Accra as well as for testing of survey instruments.

On this same land stands the Greater Accra Regional Office of the Survey & Mapping Division, constructed by Major Gordon Guggisberg where the school provide middle-level manpower to feed the office. The department was so sited because the department was then under the Ministry of Defence, and for the security nature of topographic data the military protection was necessary. In instances where an Air Survey is to be carried out, the military would have to give clearance in order not to give topographic data out to be attacked by outsiders. There is also a student hostel that house those from regions outside Accra, on the land.

The Ghana School of Survey & Mapping provides training in the following disciplines:

1)     Land Surveying

2)   Cartography & Visualisation

3)   Photogrammetry

4)   Remote Sensing

5)    Digital Mapping & Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

The school runs HND, Certificate as well as tailor made programmes in Surveying & Mapping. Lectures are mostly Survey Department staff (Msc. Holders) who teach in addition to their official responsibilities. 

The school is affiliated to NABPTEX, the issuing body for the HND. NAPBTEX requested the school to update some requirements for re-accreditation. Some of the requirements included additional building structures, since the school was constraint with space among others.

The immediate past Principal of the school, Mr. Baidoo, saved a lot of money, (GOLDEN EGGS) waiting for go ahead from the survey authorities so that it could add other structures in order to meet NABPTEX conditions for re-accreditation.

It will be recalled that in 2008 Lands Commission led the passage of a bill, merging Survey Department, the Land Title Registry and the Lands Valuations Board with the Lands Commission and which made the Survey Department a division under the Lands Commission. Since then everything that Survey Department stood for has either been destroyed, or relegated to the background. Now Land Title has been relocated into the offices of Survey Department under a supposed One-Stop-Shop.

Moneys apparently voted for the One-Stop-Shop under LAP 2 cannot be accounted for. The Executive Secretary of Lands Commission, Dr. Anim Odame has decided to sacrifice the Ghana School of Survey & Mapping premises. The school sits on a fifteen (15) Acre land waiting for funds to expand the structures to allow for more intake, just like Accra Poly. Lands Commission has given part of the land to the west towards “Kawukudi” and sharing boundary with the BNI office to Town & Country Planning to construct a Head Office.

Lands Commission has also given about three (3) Acres of the land to a developer to construct a Lands Commission Corporate Head Office. In return the developer is to be given a lease of ten (10) Acres of the remaining land as payment.

The students of the school have been asked to relocate into one of the survey office near Elwak traffic light to displace staff there. The school’s sign post embossed on the school wall has been removed. Demolition has started.

Ever since the merger of Survey Department with Lands Commission, Lands Commission Executive Secretary has exercised some superior authority such that when he decides on something he goes ahead to implement it and the Survey authorities are afraid of him.

In March 2012 fire swept through the Lands Commission near the Cantonment Post Office, destroying several of the survey offices. That stretch of offices have been earmarked for the construction of a two (2) storey office complex.

The question is, does the Lands Commission need another Corporate Head Office on the premises of the Ghana School of Survey & Mapping. A long wholesale office building used by GIS and technical staff is now being used as Human Resource (HR) office. Does the HR need that whole big room.

The Ghana School of Survey & Mapping must not be sacrificed for the construction of an office whose cost will be made in the form of a lease of ten (10) Acres of the same land apparently for the construction of a Shopping Mall by the developer.

The Ghana School of Survey & Mapping which is one of its kind in West Africa, is appealing to the government to intervene. This is at a time when the goal of the government is to transform the quality of education by upgrading and promoting the construction of Community Day Senior Secondary Schools in the country, and when the Minister of Education Prof Naana Opoku Agyeman has won herself a place of honor in the high office of UNESCO.

Land owners now use more of the services of trained land surveyor other than land guards, thus reducing harassment and instating discipline to some extent.

Some foreign institutions have been willing to help in the expansion of the school and have been waiting for the go ahead to do that. One such institution is JICA, who at the time proposed the expansion of the school to serve West Africa under the Global Mapping project. Again Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC) has been established under GSSM & ITC - Netherlands Collaboration and where foreign students from East Africa have participated. Lectures came from ITC, Netherlands to teach from time to time.

The Parliamentary Select Committee on Lands came to Lands Commission on a working visit. It is believed that they may give approval for the project to take off.

Mr. President, what do you say.

Editorial

WHO IS INSULTING WHO?

President John Dramani Mahama has now served notice that he  will not take what he calls insults from the New Patriotic Party (NPP) any more.

While some have described the Presidents reaction as uncharacteristic others have said that it is time for somebody to draw attention to the bombastic verbiage of the largest opposition party.

The Insight has always known the President for his calm disposition which has served him well and given him many friends.

Indeed, it was this deposition which encouraged former President John Evans Atta Mills to nominate him as his running mate in 2008.

We honestly think that the president should not have directly responded to the provocations of the NPP and remained his usual calm self.

After all as President, he has many spokespersons who can speak for him and respond to any provocations.

 The presidency must remain sanctified at all times.