Black cobra disrupts seminar

Nkawie (Ash), Oct.5, GNA- Pandemonium broke out at a seminar on Career Programme Selection in the Saint Justin's Anglican Church at Nkawie in the Atwima Nwabiagya District in Ashanti on Thursday when a big black cobra entered the hall.

The over 500 selected final year private Junior High School (JHS) students, their teachers and parents who were participants had to ran helter-skelter for their lives.

Calm was, however, restored when the video cameraman who was covering the programme mustered courage and killed the reptile.

The seminar formed part of programme drawn-up by the District's Education Directorate to educate the final-year students of JHS and Senior High Schools (SHS) in the district on Career Programme Selection, Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) and the new educational reforms.

Opening the seminar, Mrs Dina Appiah, District Director of Education observed that proper career choice by students largely determined their future status in society.

She advised the students to learn from other people's experiences and also take advice from their parents and teachers seriously. Mrs Appiah deplored the actions of some students who force their not-too-rich parents to send them to boarding schools which are far from their area of abode and advised them to select schools that are sited closely to them.

Mrs Mercy Oti-Appiah, District Guidance and Counselling Coordinator, said research had revealed that parents influence students' career choice so much that they become dictators rather than reasoning with them.

She said this usually resulted in poor academic performances of some hitherto brilliant students.

Mrs Oti-Appiah advised them to resist peer group influences adding that, "most students influence or copy blindly what their peers select for a career without thinking critically about it". Mrs Irene Comfort Badu, an Assistant Director of Education in-charge of School Health Education Programme (SHEP) said the lack of career guidance for JHS students usually resulted in poor career choice, which consequently push many of them into wrong jobs.