200 buses ready for distribution to SHSs

Tetrem (Ash), July 15, GNA - Government has taken delivery of 200 buses to be distributed to Senior High Schools nationwide to improve transportation challenges facing them, Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Education, Science and Sports has said.

He said out of the 200, the Ashanti Region would receive 31 but did not provide the entire distribution list for the rest of the regions. Professor Fobih announced this when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people as well as students of Osei Tutu II College at Tetrem in the Afigya-Kwabre District during a working visit to the College on Monday where he presented one of the buses.

He said the government was committed to enhancing quality education, hence the new education reform, which is aimed among other things to encourage all children of school going age to be in school. Professor Fobih was optimistic that if all primary schools in the country benefit from the School Feeding Programme, every child would be in school.

He said with the reform, Junior High School graduates who could not gained admission to tertiary level would be given a one-year vocational training to enable them to become self-employed. Professor Fobih stressed the need for chiefs, parents and other stakeholders to support Government in its efforts to strengthen quality education in the country.

Mr Emmanuel Asamoah Owusu-Ansah, Ashanti Regional Minister, on behalf of President Kufuor, expressed condolence to the bereaved families of the recent lorry accident on the Offin River. He said the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has taken notice of the numerous problems facing the school including the tarring of the road from Boamang to the town stressing that something concrete would be done to solve the problem.

Mr Albert Kan Dapaah, Minister of Defence and MP for Afigya-Sekyere West assured the people that efforts were being made to tar the road networks in the area and urged them to exercise patience. Mr Samuel Ekuoba Gyasi, the headmaster of the College, said the academic performance of the students in the final exams were encouraging in spite of the poor conditions they found themselves in the school. He also stressed that the conditions under, which staff and students work does not augur well for effective teaching and learning and therefore called for the urgent need for the provision of science and computer laboratory equipment, dining hall, classrooms, dormitory blocks and staff bungalows.

Nana Osei Kwame, Chief of Tetrem, appealed for the construction of a new school block for the two dilapidated structures in the town.