PATRONISE SCHOOLS CLOSER TO YOU (PAGE 11)

THE Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, has asked communities to patronise schools closer to them.
“It is the indigenes of this place that should rather lead in making this school their first choice among all others for the attention of other students, qualified staff and support”, he admonished.
The Director-General was addressing the 40th Anniversary and Speech and Prize- giving Day of the Leklebi Senior High School at Leklebi in the Hohoe District during which 148 people were rewarded for their selfless contribution to the school.
He told the gathering that the government was aware of the needs of schools and was responding to them and with time, additional facilities would be provided for the school.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah announced that schools were being refurbished with the provision of logistical support to facilitate the teaching of Information Communication Technology (ICT).
The Director-General said very soon 200 buses would be distributed to senior high schools and three technical schools.
Already, he said, teacher training colleges had received their fair share of institutional vehicles while 23 technical schools had also recently been provided.
The guest speaker, Professor Mawutor Avoke, reiterated the importance of education which, he said, was the reliable means of attaining national development.
“Land and physical capital, though important, could be dormant unless human beings use them,” he said.
He asked the students to strive hard to achieve academic excellence through hard work, determination and perseverance.
He also asked parents to be supportive of their children by giving them nutritious food, shelter and clothing.
Prof. Avoke asked teachers to support their students through motivation.
“Teaching should not be about inculcating knowledge alone but adopting a humanistic approach that seeks the total welfare of all students,” he said.
The community, he said, could encourage students to learn by instituting scholarship schemes where deserving students would be awarded prizes annually.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr Thomas Odikro, in his report, said the school started in 1967 with 32 students and through the commitment and determination of the Leklebi community it was saved from near collapse.
He expressed gratitude to Vice-President Aliu Mahama, for fulfilling a promise to provide a double-cabin Nissan Pick-up for the school and the VALCO for giving them a new bus.
He announced that the GETFund-sponsored two-storey girls dormitory was nearing completion.