Anglican institutions conference held in Sunyani

Sunyani, April 23, GNA- Nana Kwadwo Seinti, Brong Ahafo Regional Manager on Thursday urged managers and heads of schools to adopt necessary mechanisms to ensure proper supervision and management of their institutions.

He stressed that if the managers failed to do so, "we shall be far from reaching our goals, however beautiful and laudable the ambitions of the government might be".

The Regional Minister was addressing the 30th Annual Rotary Conference of Managers and Heads of Anglican Higher Institutions in Sunyani under the theme, "Training of Responsible Youth - The Role of the Church".

In a speech read for him by Mr Yaw Adjei-Duffour, Deputy Regional Minister, Nana Seinti said education was a priority of the government and the need to provide quality education and service delivery in schools had been its major concern.

He said a great chunk of the national budget including the GETFUND, has always been channelled through the Ministry of Education to improve the sector, he said.

The Regional Minister noted that the government had within the last three years rehabilitated the infrastructure of many schools and provided additional classrooms, furniture and textbooks in some areas. He said the government had also not relented in efforts in the promotion of one senior secondary school in each district to match the well-endowed ones in the metropolitan and urban centres.

Nana Seinti asked the conference to seriously deliberate certain nagging issues that had impacted negatively on academic performance in educational institutions.

These include effectiveness of various school management committees and PTAs, indiscipline and moral decadence of children, motivation of teachers, truancy, smoking, and alcoholism.

The Regional Minister commended the Anglican Church for establishing various schools to complement government efforts but reiterated that what was needed was effective supervision of the schools.

It is the responsibility of Managers and heads of Institutions to ensure that moral education does not only become an academic subject", he added.

Mrs Akua Debrah, Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, deplored the high rate of indiscipline among students in schools, saying the theme for the conference was most appropriate and would help to stem it.

She urged parents to take interest in the education of their children and the schools they attended.

"Let us get our children to attend schools where they can be taught the Christian values that we profess to uphold", she added.

In a speech read for him, the Right Reverend Thomas Ampah Brient, Bishop of Anglican Diocese of Sunyani, expressed the hope that the conference would identify problems of the youth and encourage them to be serious with their education.

He noted that since the country was going through a reconciliation process it was incumbent on especially the youth to shun acts of indiscipline and to learn to live in peace with one another.