Take advantage of free education -Minister

Larteh-Akuapem,(E/R) July 17, GNA- The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah, had advised parents to take advantage of the free education policy at the basic level which takes effect from September this year to educate their children to become assets to them and the society at large.

Mr Barimah, gave the advice in a speech read on his behalf at the 20th anniversary and 3rd speech and prize-giving day of Larteh, Presbyterian Secondary Technical School in the Akuapem North district on Saturday.

He said government was committed to making education accessible to all in society hence the construction of new buildings and rehabilitation of existing school structures across the length and breadth of the country under the HIPC facility.

The Regional Minister noted that in the Akuapem North District alone, 825 projects in the areas of education, water and sanitation, health and roads had been executed from 2001-2004 to improve the standard of living for the people in the area.

He urged the PTA, board of governors and the eminent personalities who had passed through the school to give the needed attention and support to the school to enable it achieve it's goals.

The District Director of Education, Hajia Katumi Mahama, appealed to the community to help develop the school since it was a community school and could not develop without the support of the community in which the school was located.

She urged parents to demand receipts of school fees they give to their wards to pay to forestall the recent incidence where students writing their final year exams were keeping their school fees in their pockets.

The Headmaster of the school, Mr Emmanuel Mac Asare in his address said non-payment of fees, accommodation for staff and students, ill-equipped classroom and lack of means of transport were pressing problems facing the school.

He therefore, appealed to the Regional Minster to help them complete a three-classroom block which had become necessary due to the conversion of one of the classroom blocks into a dormitory for the girls and to acquire a school bus to facilitate academic activities.

The Chairman of the occasion, who is also an old student and the past president of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GhIE), Mr Fred Adu-Nyarko urged the students to cultivate the attitude of being punctual to all functions.

He called for collective efforts on the part of both adults and the young ones to change what had now become 'Ghana time', saying, "Ghana has no time; we have to be conscious with our time."