AKPAFU HIGH SCHOOL HOLDS FIRST SPEECH DAY (PAGE 11, JAN 7, 2011)

THE Akpafu Senior High Technical School in the Hohoe Municipality has held its first speech and prize-giving day after nearly 20 years of existence.
In all, 14 students, including four females, and 10 staff took home various awards for their academic and job excellence. It was on the theme: “Meaningful Senior High School Education in Deprived Senior High Schools - A Big Challenge.”
In a speech read on his behalf, the former Education Minister, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, commended the school authorities for braving through their deprived situation to take the first step.
Mr Tettey-Enyo said: “All the great and renowned schools you see around started with little or no amenities but today they have become the envy of all.”
The minister assured them that with determination, they would also achieve their dreams of transforming their seemingly hopeless situation into an admirable one.
He said the government was determined to give technical and vocational institutions the necessary push to prepare the students adequately for the future.
In a speech read for him by the Hohoe Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Hermann Victor Condobrey, the Volta Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Amenowode, also said they had received their list of infrastructure facilities needed on the campus to enhance effective teaching and learning.
Mr Amenowode assured the school authorities that everything would be done to ensure that their requests were met.
In his report, the Headmaster of the school, Mr Theophilus Asravor, expressed satisfaction that since his assumption of office last year, enrolment had risen from 150 to 410 students.
Mr Asravor lamented that although the school had a promising catchment area, they continued to have a low intake due to lack of facilities, adding that academic achievements had been on the increase, with the school scoring 90 per cent last academic year.
He named some of the immediate needs of the school as classrooms, furniture, science laboratory, boys dormitory, an administrative block, a library and a school vehicle.