Free Mason grants scholarships to needy pupils

Koforidua, Dec.14, GNA- The Veritas Lodge of the Freemasons on Tuesday, awarded a three-year scholarship worth 9 million cedis to 10 needy but brilliant pupils from five districts in the Eastern Region. The offer would enable them to pursue Junior Secondary School (JSS) education at Koforidua.

The award included school fees and other logistics worth 300,000 cedis per each student per year.

Presenting the award at a ceremony at Koforidua, Bro. Julius Addo Tham said it was the aim of members of the Lodge to show charity every year to the poor in society.

He observed that the value of the Award, which was 900,000 cedis for every beneficiary, was the equivalent of government approved rate of educating a student at the JSS level and called on parents to show interest in their children education.

The Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mrs Ewurabena Ahwoi, noted that most children were dropping out of school due to parents' inability to pay their fees and thanked the benefactors for their kind gesture.

Mrs Ahwoi charged parents of the beneficiaries to show concern in their wards education.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah, in a speech read for him, tasked the District Directors of Education from whose areas the beneficiaries came from, to open files on them to and assess their performance.

He expressed gratitude to the Lodge for their noble gesture and said the government alone could not achieve it's aim without the concerted efforts of all stakeholders.

Dr Osafo-Mensah said to further make education accessible to all, government had put in place a grant whereby children attending school in the Birim North and Kwahu North Districts would not pay fees from kindergarten through to basic level.

He advised the recipients to study hard and avoid all activities detrimental to their education to enable them benefit fully from the scholarship.