Hon. Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah’s Dairy: Meeting Scholarship Beneficiaries

With his personal experience of how he acquired formal education, Hon Emmanuel Kwasi Bedzrah, the Member of Parliament for Ho West Constituency commits a chunk of his share of the District Assembly Common Fund annually to paying school fees of needy students at the tertiary and second cycle levels.

At the second cycle level, about eight hundred persons from across the constituency have benefited from the scheme since its inception in September 2007. Presently, about hundred persons’ fees is being paid in Awudome SHS, Kpedze SHS, Dzolo SHS, Abutia SHTS, Tsito SHTS and Akome SHTS all of which are in the Ho West District. The scheme also pays fees of three persons in two schools outside of the district which are Mawuli SHS and Keta SHTS.

Meeting with Second Cycle Beneficiaries
For the first time since 2007, Hon Bedzrah has met with the present beneficiaries of the scheme in the Assembly Hall of Awudome Senior High School on Thursday, March 31, 2016. The meeting offered him the opportunity to listen to the specific problems of the beneficiaries and to also educate them on the structure of the scheme. It also offered him the opportunity to gather first-hand information on what the beneficiaries think of the scheme as he sets out to streamline its activities. Hon Bedzrah challenged beneficiaries to study hard and score good grades in their final examinations to justify their inclusion in the scheme. He admonished them to take full advantage of the scheme to achieve their dreams saying their inclusion in the scheme is not a right, but a privilege which they must not waste.

On his part, the Headmaster of Awudome Senior High School, Mr Emmanuel K Amu who welcomed the beneficiaries to the meeting asked them to forever remain grateful to the MP for instituting such a scheme which has become their saviour and through which they can achieve their ambitions.

Touching on the structure of the scheme, Hon Bedzrah was full of appreciation to Mr Kafui Kwawu (Shaka), the Youth Organizer of the ruling National Democratic Congress in the Ho West Constituency for sacrificing his time and other resources in coordinating activities of the scheme since its inception until this year when he transferred that responsibility to officers at his Constituency Secretariat. The MP hinted that he has tasked his officers to define the selection criteria of beneficiaries to make the scheme much more representative and to ensure the neediest persons become the beneficiaries. He also said plans are advanced to make the scheme performance based where beneficiaries are withdrawn from the scheme if they fail to meet an average pass mark at the end of an academic year. According to him, these measures are being put in place to ensure beneficiaries don’t take the scheme for granted knowing they risk missing out on completing senior high school if they failed to perform.

The MP said to ensure the investment he makes in the students doesn’t go waste, he has arranged with members of the University of Ghana chapter of Volta Students Association of Ghana to hold extra class sessions for them during long vacation periods. This is to augment the efforts of their teachers and to enable those of them who are slow learners to catch up with their mates. It is also meant to serve as an opportunity for the students to be taken through all the required topics in their syllabuses to get them fully ready for their final examination. He challenged the beneficiaries to take advantage of this opportunity when the time comes to make good grades that will enable them to enter tertiary institutions of their choice.

Developing a Tertiary Attitude
Mr Moses Adzei, a lecturer in the Music Department at the University of Education, Winneba who spoke on why senior high school students should develop the right attitude that prepares them to fit into a tertiary environment cited himself as a beneficiary of a scholarship scheme which made it possible for him to complete secondary school. According to Mr Adzei, the tertiary environment requires self-discipline and purposefulness since no one will “chase” you to go for evening studies and or to do your assignments. He therefore challenged the beneficiaries to begin to develop such qualities if they are to make good tertiary students.