Government asked to make education a priority in the North

Bolgatanga, July 31, GNA - Mr John Akaribo, Chairman of the Bolgatanga Municipal School Management Committee, has called on government to make education a priority in its development agenda for the Upper East, Northern and Upper West Regions.

He said government programmes and policies aimed at addressing the poverty in the three Northern Regions would fail if priority was not given to education.

Mr Akaribo in an interview with GNA in Bolgatanga on Friday, said that the high illiteracy rate in the three Regions was affection development. He said there was the need to reverse the situation so that programmes such as the Upper Region Development Programme, Agriculture Sector Improvement Programme, Farmers Service Company and the Northern Rural Growt= h Programme could make positive impact on the lives of the people. Mr Akaribo said 93A majority of the people in the three Northern Regi= ons are illiterate and no matter how much support you give them to enhance thei= r living standards, it would not achieve positive results since they are illiterate". He said that many parents in the Northern Regions could not afford to pay their children's school fees, especially those in the Senior High Schools and tertiary institutions. Mr Akaribo expressed worry that children between the ages of 10 and 16 migrated to the Southern part of Ghana to do menial jobs and end acquiring bad habits.

He asked Government to channel part of the funds for the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority into the development of education in the three Northern Regions to help develop the human resource base. Mr Akaribo suggested to government and other stakeholders to establish a Northern Educational Endowment Fund to cater for the educational needs of the people since they people lagged behind in education. He called on the Regional Coordinating Councils of the three Regions t= o organise stakeholders' education conference for traditional leaders, Assembly Members, Members of Parliament and citizens of living outside thei= r Regions to seek solution to educational challenges.