NGO donates 277 million cedis worth of books to communities

Awutu-Bawjiase (C/R), April 27, GNA-The Awutu-Bawjiase Programme Area office of Plan Ghana, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), has donated 277,903,000.00 Cedis worth of books to 24 communities in four districts in two regions.

They are Agona, Awutu-Effutu-Senya and Gomoa in the Central Region and Ga in the Greater Region.

The books included, 23,871 exercise books, 1,857 mathematics textbooks, 1,783 English textbooks and 907 science textbooks. Mrs Emelia Allen, Bawjiase Programme Area Manager of the NGO, on behalf of the country director of the NGO, presented the materials to the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service at Bawjiase on Wednesday.

The Area Manager said the package formed part of Plan Ghana's School Improvement Programme (SIP), designed to augment government's efforts at promoting quality education in the country.

Mrs Allen said the scheme would be continued until all the 57 partner communities in which the Bawjiase Programme Area office of Plan Ghana operates were covered.

She, therefore, asked registered communities in the four districts which have not benefited from the programme yet to exercise restraint because they would not be left out.

Mrs Allen gave the assurance that the NGO would continue to support Ghana's socio-economic development.

She said Plan Ghana was determined to assist the nation to produce the right type human resource required for national development. Mrs Allen said it was for this reason that the NGO had over the years intensified its activities to improve child welfare, health, water situation, adolescent reproductive programmes, education and agriculture.

She asked headteachers of schools in beneficiary communities to ensure that the materials were put to proper use. In a speech read on her behalf, Mrs Emma Baaba Quarcoo, District Director of Education in charge of Awutu-Effutu-Senya and the Goamoa Districts, commended Plan Ghana for contributing to the country's socio-economic development.

Mr James Godfred Larbie, a circuit officer at the District Directorate of Education, said the Unit would monitor the supply of the materials to ensure that they were released to the actual beneficiaries. Mr Kweku Aggrey, headteacher of Gomoa-Abassa Junior Secondary School, said students could not perform well in the BECE examinations in the district in recent years due to the lack of textbooks in public schools in the area.

He said the donation from Plan Ghana was therefore "manna that had fallen from the heaven".

Individuals and officials at the function unanimously stressed the need for parents and guardians to play their expected role effectively to promote education in the area.