GES presents education materials to needy students

Breman Asikuma (C/R), Nov. 2, GNA - One thousand one hundred and thirty-seven needy children have been presented with educational materials worth 111.1 million cedis jointly by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and Asikuma Odoben Brakwa District Assembly at a ceremony at Breman Asikuma.

The beneficiaries included 445 boys and 682 girls. Thirteen of them who are physically challenged received drugs and spectacles in addition.

The items included school uniform, exercise books, textbooks, school bags, pens and pencils.

In an address, the District Director of Education, Mrs Janet Ama Lassey said that one important factor which could keep the children in school comfortably is to have all their basic needs supplied. She said the supply of these needs, socially, physically and morally places them in the proper frame of mind to learn, adding that it is the basic responsibility of all parents to support their children with these basic needs.

Mrs Lassey said a child without any of these items feels miserable at school and if it continues the child will drop out of school. The District Director of Education reminded the parents to discipline their children at home so that when they come to school the teachers could easily mould them.

"Teach them to respect their teachers and elders in society and to learn hard to pass examinations," she said. She appealed to the beneficiaries of the package and their parents to take proper care of the items supplied them.

The District Chief Executive, Mr. Sampson Kwame Anfako said that a total allocation of four billion, four hundred and forty-four million cedis has been provided by the Government from the GETFund for scholarship for pupils and students in basic schools in the 40 deprived districts in the country to support needy children.

He said the Government has given priority to education and one of the measures taken to improve the quality of education, especially at the basic level is the disbursement of scholarship to deprived districts in the country of which the Asikuma Odoben Brakwa was one.

He said some of the criteria used in the selection of pupils to be sponsored include children from broken homes whose parents are unable to pay fees, children from single parent families, children living with guardians, orphans without support, children who take care of themselves, neglected disabled children and children of poor disabled parents.

The DCE announced further that 147 trainee teachers to work in the district after their training have been sponsored by the assembly with an amount of 147 million cedis.

Mr. Anfako said the Government has covered all aspects of the needy school children to reduce poverty by assisting both the parents and the children. He prayed that the programme could be sustained for a long time so that other school children would benefit from it. The Chairman for the function, Nana Miako Mantey V, sub-chief of Breman Asikuma Traditional Council appealed to the Government to provide permanent accommodation for the GES District Directorate to replace the rented house.