Accra, May 22, GNA - The Headmistress of the Labone Secondary School, Mrs Joyce Agyekum, has appealed to the government to put in place a national bus system, especially for day students in all educational institutions in the country to minimise the stress students go through to get to school.
She said some students got to school late because they lived very far from their schools and this was one of the major contributing factor to poor academic performance.
Mrs Agyekum, who made the appeal over the weekend at the 39th Speech and prize-giving day of the school, also called for community participation in meeting the needs of students.
She stated that, "When there is a positive partnership between the school and the home, students have greater opportunities for learning." The celebration is on the theme: "Improving the Quality of Second Cycle Education-The role of Stakeholders."
Mrs Agyekum said the school made tremendous achievements in various fields including athletics, debates and in the Senior Secondary Certificate of Examination (SSSCE).
She said out of the 616 candidates the school presented for the SSSCE, 415 had between aggregate six and eight passes, which had qualified them to enter tertiary institutions.
She commended Ms Mavis Twumasi Ankrah, for being the overall best student in the SSSCE with aggregate six.
She commended the teaching staff for their dedication towards the introduction of after school tutorials, mid-term texts and weekly texts, which she said had contributed to the upward trend in academic performance of students.
Mrs Agyekum also attributed the upward performance of students to the current high discipline, which was now making them to be more serious with their studies.
She stressed that discipline was a training that developed efficiency, self-control, the courage to do the right thing, patience, being fair and treating all persons with respect.
The headmistress commended government's effort in rehabilitating the schools' Assembly Hall and Science laboratories.
She, however, urged the Ghana Education Service to expedite action on the construction of a 12-unit classroom to help ease congestion. Mrs Agyekum also appealed to the GETFund Administrator to release funds for the construction of a girl's dormitory to improve on the intake of girls into the boarding house and also the Ghana Water Company to resolve the water problem of the community. Togbe Afede XIV, Agbobomefia of the Ho Asogli State, called for a collaborative effort on the part of all stakeholders to help put in place structures that would ensure the success of the nations' educational system. He noted that the current crises in the country's educational system indicated that certain structures and policies had failed to resolve the problems, but rather created loopholes for none performance. He mentioned the lack of supervision, poor examination and testing standards as some of the causes of the current failure of the educational system and said the educational structures needed to be geared towards self -dependency. He called for motivation as well as in-service training for both teaching and non-teaching staff of the GES, to ensure selfless services. Togbe Afede XIV appealed to parents to instil in their children the culture of tolerance to accept the world's diversity, honesty, selflessness, discipline and respect for all humanity to alleviate ethnic conflicts. 22 May 05
