After a fire destroyed the school's girls' dormitories, Tolon Senior High School has been temporarily shuttered.
The fire, which began at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday morning, completely damaged the top level of the girls' dormitory, which housed around 600 pupils.
After an emergency meeting, the decision to close the school was made to allow kids to return home for a week while school officials made alternative arrangements.
Dauda Zakiya, a student who had lost all of her stuff, couldn't keep back her sobs. "I've lost everything; this bag is all I have," she explained.
Zakiya said that she had to help her parents buy the goods on the prospectus list before she could attend school. "It was difficult for my father to purchase these items for me. She said, "They purchased some, and I bought some; I was selling dates during the fasting season."
Tolon SHS's girl's dormitory has been gutted by fire.
Mohammed Issifu, the school's Headmaster, explained that the decision to temporarily close the school was made to give the authorities time to make alternate arrangements for the children.
He stated that the decision was made after consulting with key stakeholders. Mr. Issifu added that the top section of the dormitory holds 647 female students, and that when classes begin, they want to turn some classrooms and a compound home owned by the Assembly into hostels.
Mr. Issifu said that the Assembly has a compound home in town, and that because of the school's predicament, they are attempting to see if they can turn any of the classrooms into dormitories.
Baba Hudu, a public relations officer for the Ghana National Fire Service, said the fire was so fierce that they had to send three more fire tenders to the school to put it out.
According to him, the first story of the building was completely destroyed. Mr. Hudu went on to say that some of the students' belongings were destroyed, and that two female students collapsed but were revived by the ambulance crew.
According to Mr. Hudu, they have encouraged school officials to hire specialists to analyze the block before deciding whether or not to rebuild it.
He also bemoaned the quantity of speed tables on the Tolon road, claiming that they hampered their journey from Tamale to Tolon.
"The amount of the damage was due to the distance; we all know that Tolon lacks a fire station, despite the Assembly's construction of one that has yet to be turned over to us." We may count up to 23 speed ramps on the route," he claimed.