Make Education answer to poverty - Aliu tells Muslims

Japekrom (B/A), Sept 18, GNA - The Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama, has called on the people to pursue education as the solution to ignorance and poverty.

He said, "Education is the solution if we want to fight poverty, education is the key if we want to fight ignorance".

The Vice President who is on a three-day outreach programme was addressing Muslim communities in the Brong Ahafo region, to explain government policies and to elicit their feedback for their improvement. He also inspected some development projects and commissioned mosques in four communities funded by the Islamic Council for Development and Humanitarian Services, an NGO.

The Muslim communities he addressed were Brekum Zongo, Japekrom and Sampa both in the Jaman District.

Vice President said the Holy Quoran emphasis the need to seek knowledge for self-advancement and that of society.

He also urged them to participate actively in development projects and to undertake productive ventures to better their lot.

To be able to achieve this, he said, they should be abreast with development at both the district and national levels.

The Vice President mentioned several road improvement projects, education facilities, agricultural support programmes and clinics being undertaken, saying, 800 billion cedis from the HIPC Relief Benefit would be invested this year on similar projects to improve the standard of living of Ghanaians.

Dr Majeed Haroun, Deputy Minister of Mines, advised the people to form groups to access several agricultural assistance facilities under the Village Infrastructure Project VIP, Social Investment Fund, livestock production and cashew processing ventures.

Mr. Kweku Agyemang Manu, Deputy Minister of Finance, briefed the people about the financial situation of the nation, saying that, prudent measures pursued by the government has increased the national foreign exchange position, which could only cover one week import in January 2000 to cover four months imports as at the end of July this year. He said the mass cocoa-spraying project undertaken by government helped to raise cocoa production last year to 500 thousand tones, the highest since 1965.

The level had been between 250 and 300 thousand for many years. Alhaji Mocta Bamba, Deputy Minister of Presidential Affaires, asked the people to support the government's programmes to improve their lives.

Earlier the Vice President inspected work on the Brekum township roads and visited the Brekum Training College, which is faced with accommodation problem for the female students.

He directed Alhaji Rashid Bawa, Deputy Minister of Education, to explore means of assisting the college to convert its Home Science block into a temporary hostel to enable the college to admit 150 qualified female students.

Alhaji Aliu Mahama praised the college for its efforts to ensure gender balance in its admissions and encouraged the authorities to train high calibre teachers to improve the standard of education. The intake for the academic year will increase from 240 to over 350.

Alhaji Bawa said with assistance from the GetFund, efforts were being made to reduce the shortfall of 13,000 thousand qualified teachers needed annually.

Training Colleges turn out only 7,000 thousand teachers every year. 18 Sept 03