Government's free school uniform programme takes off

Accra, Dec. 30, GNA - Three-hundred elated pupils at Kwao Larbie, a town in the Awutu Senya District in the Central Region, on Wednesday, received free school uniforms each from the First Lady, Mrs Ernestina Naa= du Mills. The ceremony marked the beginning of government's free school unifor= ms programme for deprived communities.

The uniforms were part of the first consignment of 1.6 million, bein= g distributed to children in 77 deprived districts in the country. Mrs Mills distributed the uniforms valued at GH¢21 million to six beneficiary schools in the District.

The beneficiary schools were Ahentia DA Primary, Abenful DA Primary,= Bontrase DA Primary, Chochoe Anglican Primary, Akrampa Anglican Primary a= nd Kwao Larbie Anglican Primary.

Fifty pupils from each of the six schools received one free uniform. Mrs Mills said government was aware of the numerous challenges plagu= ing the country's educational system and was committed to improving the secto= r. She said increase of the Capitation Grant from GH¢3.00 to GH¢4.5= 0 per pupil, since the beginning of the 2009 academic year was indicative that government was committed to ensuring that parents and guardians were relieved of the burden of supporting the education of their wards. Mrs Mills urged parents and guardians to allow their wards to comple= te the required basic education and to encourage them to climb the academic ladder in order to be self-reliant and useful in society. She said education was considered as the pivot of the socio-economic=

development of every nation, adding that "no nation can afford to pay lip=

service to quality education delivery".

"There is no gainsaying that yesterday's education opens today's doo= r and today's education will open tomorrow's door, hence the commitment of government to invest heavily in our people," she said, adding that government had identified education as one of the means to improve the li= ves of the citizenry. Ms Ama Benyiwa Doe, Central Regional Minister, expressed dissatisfaction at the fallen standard of education among pupils in the region and called for collective efforts to beef up quality education delivery. "Education standard at the Central Region, to say the least, is a fa= r cry from a region that first established contact with the Western World,"=

she said. Ms Benyiwa Doe said the launch of the free school uniforms should se= rve as a motivation to challenge the indigenes to change the fallen standard of education in the region to "an enviable one".

She charged parents and guardians to be interested in the education of their children and wards and supervise their home work and other school chores as a way of reciprocating government's kind gesture towards improv= ing the standards of quality basic education delivery.