Asante Akim North Assembly launches Education Fund
THE ASANTE Akim North Municipal Assembly has launched an Education Development Fund to, among others, help improve the standard of education in the municipality, following the falling standards, according to statistics from the Education Directorate of the area.
The Assembly has set aside an amount of GH¢15,000, from its share of the District Assembly's Common Fund, as seed money for the fund.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Asante Akim North, Mr. Thomas Osei Bonsu, who announced this at the launching ceremony last week Wednesday, stressed the need to mitigate the situation, hence the idea to launch an Educational Development Fund under the theme “Quality Education Accessibility for All,” to help address some of the challenges associated with education in the municipality.
He said the launching of the fund was to complement previous efforts by the assembly to help improve the standard of education in the municipality, and ensure accessible quality education for the majority of children, especially the poor and children from less privileged and endowed communities.
He stated that the Assembly, in its drive, has budgeted for the construction of eight educational facilities across the municipality from the District Assemblies Common Fund, and the District Development Fund, to address the challenges of facilities and resources in the educational institutions.
According to the MCE, poor quality education leads to the waste of time and resources, and thereby generate insufficiencies and inefficiencies, and suggested a levy of GH¢2 for resident adults, and GH¢5 for non-resident citizens of the municipality, to help address the falling standards of education in the municipality.
He appealed to corporate bodies both within and outside the municipality, donor agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), philanthropists, civil society groups, and individuals to donate generously to this fund, to pervert the social injustice and waste of the human potential of the children, resulting from the lack of proper education.
He said the youth constitute more than 50% of the population of Ghana, and as such, the role they play in society cannot be underestimated.