Three senior high schools (SHS) on Tuesday received awards for reaching the finals of the maiden “Inaugural Africa Schools Debate-Dialogue League” competition.
It is an Africa Intellectual Integration Project, organised by The Think Africa Forum, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in collaboration with Ghana Education Service.
The schools are T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High in Kumasi, Lawra Senior High in the Upper West Region and Yilo Krobo Senior High in the Eastern Region.
The Yilo Krobo SHS received the golden trophy; Lawra SHS had the diamond cup while the T.I. Ahmadiyya SHS got the copper award.
The competition was organised among 45 second cycle schools on the topic: “Pan African and Renaissance – A Core Subject in Second Cycle Education Institutions in Africa,” across the 10 regions.
Mr James Victor Gbeho, former President of ECOWAS Commission said unless Africans unite and place much emphasis on Pan-Africanism for the development of the continent they would find themselves marginalised.
“We need to go back and pick up the unfinished agenda and use them to guarantee the greater and better living standard of the citizens.”
Mr Gbeho said pan-Africanism is about mobilising the strength, wisdom and other values to enhance the life of the people.
He said Dr Kwame Nkrumah laid a lot of emphasis on Pan-Africanism, which made Ghana to attain independence, saying: “Until we think for ourselves nobody will think for us.”
Mr Gbeho commended The Think Africa Forum for the organisation of the competition and asked the students to give off their best not only for Ghana but to the entire African continent.
Mr Victor Moffatt, President of the NGO said the golden trophy received by the Yilo Krobo SHS would be competed for in Nigeria on a date yet to be fixed; the diamond and copper awards would be contested for among Ghanaian second cycle schools regionally and nationally.
