Education of a child not solely responsibility of teachers- VEEP

Kumasi, Nov 27, GNA- The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama has reminded parents that even though the school is a unique place to educate their wards, it would be wrong to assume that the responsibility solely rests on teachers.

He made it clear that parents have a moral and social duty to bring up their wards well at home and also monitor their performance at school.

Alhaji Mahama was addressing the 55th Speech and prize-giving day and Second graduation ceremony of the Prempeh College in Kumasi on Saturday.

The Vice President said: "both school and home should play a complimentary role in educating the child, as parents encourage their children to be respectful to teachers and law abiding while teachers also reciprocate by giving good moral and academic training to children".

He said government alone could not fully fund education and for that matter if parents wanted quality education for their wards then it must be the collective responsibility of all stakeholders.

The Vice President said he expected the Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) to play a more significant role in the development of schools, but cautioned that the association's levies must be in accordance with the approved rates by the Ghana Education Service (GES). Alhaji Mahama was not happy about the spate of indiscipline in second cycle schools, which took the form of drug abuse, robbery, examination malpractices, truancy and destruction of public property and called for a concerted effort to check the trend.

Mr Asamoah Owusu-Akyaw, Headmaster of the School, disclosed that this year, Prempeh College topped all schools in the country in the number of students matriculated into the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

He lauded the government's policy of extending the Senior Secondary School education to four years but added that for it to succeed at the Prempeh College, the school would need 18-unit classrooms, three two-storey dormitories, more and new science laboratories as well as a bigger assembly hall to serve the needs of the students.

"The college has land that would support this expansion and it must be made use of before encroachers besieged it", he said. Mr Owusu-Akyaw commended the government for providing some funds to start a new assembly hall and new classrooms.

The Vice President later donated 20 million cedis to the school in support of a four-unit teachers' bungalow being put up at the initiative of the Headmaster.