Illegal mining not helpful to Obuasi youth

Obuasi, July 18, GNA - Miss Lydia Osei, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has said the involvement of the youth in small-scale mining (galamsey) activities in Obuasi would not help them to become useful adults in the future. She has, therefore, urged all stakeholders in education to assist in encouraging the youth to see the importance of education and the need to attend school.

Miss Osei, who was speaking at the Best Teacher Award and send-off ceremony in honour of Mr Samuel Kofi Okyere, the retired Obuasi Municipal Director of Education at Obuasi on Friday, said if mining was their interest, they should study hard to become mining engineers instead of the 'galamsey' operations.

The Deputy Director-General also urged the stakeholders to assist in the promotion of quality education delivery in public schools. Miss Osei particularly, appealed to traditional rulers to mobilise the human and material resources in their areas to support the improvement of school infrastructure, since the District Assemblies alone could not take up that responsibility.

She expressed dissatisfaction with the way some parents supplied their children in private schools with all their needs to the disadvantage of those in public schools. "Some of these children are at times made to go to school without food".

Mr Joseph Kwadwo Boampong, the Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive, praised the retired Municipal Director of Education for the part he played in raising educational standards in basic schools in the area. The Acting Municipal Director of Education, Mr Joseph K. Onyinah appealed to stakeholders in education to support the organisation of the Best Teacher Awards at the district levels so that more teachers in deprived areas could benefit.

He charged the award winners to exhibit positive attitudes and good practices in their various schools for the benefit of the entire municipality.

Mr Onyinah commended Mr Okyere for making judicious use of funds provided by the British Department for International Development (DFID) by using it to buy furniture for primary schools in the area. The ceremony, which was presided over by Nana Assiama Guahyia Ababio, the New Edubiasehene, saw 39 teaching and non-teaching personnel going home with prizes, such as television sets, fridges, radios and standing fans with the Obuasi JSS complex getting a 24-inch coloured television donated by the Obuasi Municipal Assembly for being the best public school in the Municipality in the 2004 Basic Education Certificate Examinations.