Monitor Indece Day Award Winners - Education Minister

The Minister of Education, Science and Sports, Papa Owusu-Ankomah, has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to monitor the activities of past winners of the President's Independence Day Awards.

He asked the GES to find out where the award winners were currently and what they were doing, adding that most of them were said to be doing well in their fields of endeavour.

That, he said, was to ensure that they served as role models to the present crop of students.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah made the call on Monday when the ministry hosted winners of the Golden Jubilee President's Independence Day Awards to a dinner in Accra.

The 20 award winners had each been given a three-year scholarship, valued at ¢7 million, tenable in senior secondary schools in Ghana, special anniversary cash of ¢5 million, book prizes and certificates signed by President J. A. Kufuor and the Minister of Education, Science and Sports.

Papa Owusu-Ankomah commended the winners and urged them to continue to work hard, adding, “You can achieve greater laurels only through hard work.”

He thanked the teachers who taught and groomed the award winners and was particularly impressed that some of the winners came from schools in deprived areas.

The minister lauded the contribution of parents of the award winners and charged them to continue supporting their children's education, saying that the Capitation Grant, the free bus rides and the school feeding programme should not take away parents' responsibility towards their children who were in school.

He underscored the need for the country to produce a knowledge-based society through which students would be encouraged to be solution-oriented, since the challenges ahead were enormous.

GES Director-General Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, urged the award winners to exhibit greater discipline, not only in school but wherever they found themselves.

“You should put up excellent performance wherever you find yourselves and work hard to maintain the standard you have set yourselves,” he said, adding that they should not disappoint their parents as they climbed the academic ladder.

Some of the award winners, on behalf of their colleagues, expressed their gratitude to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports for coming up with the awards, since they motivated students to study harder.

Story by Emmanuel Bonney