EDDUCATION ON SOUND TRACK (SPREAD, JAN 11, 2010)

PRESIDENT John Evans Atta Mills has again defended his first year in office by stating that the government has honoured most of its promises to improve educational infrastructure and ensure that every school-age child attends school.
He said what remained to be done was the granting of subsidy for distance education to teachers in rural areas, which, according to him, would be tackled soon.
President Mills made the statement when he addressed a colourful durbar of the chiefs and people of Mamfe to mark their annual Ohum Festival last Saturday.
The event, which had the theme “Educating our Youth: The Surest Way of Reducing Poverty in our Communities”, was also attended by dignitaries such as the Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Dr Kwabena Adjei; the Deputy Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Mr Antwi Boasiako Sekyere; the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo; his deputy, Baba Jamal, some district chief executives and the MP for the area.
According to the President, the government had improved educational infrastructure in terms of providing new school buildings, increased the Capitation Grant, continued with the School Feeding Programme and had just started with the free distribution of school uniforms to pupils in deprived communities.
He said these initiatives, which were promises the National Democratic Congress (NDC) made to the people before the 2008 elections, would within the next three years ensure that all school-age children would be enrolled in school and the standard of education improved significantly.
“We have fulfilled most of the promises we made with regard to education and very soon we will be subsidising the cost of distance education for teachers in rural areas and this will in the near future produce well-educated youth for the country’s development”, President Mills stated.
On health, the President said the government was removing the bottlenecks in the Health Insurance Scheme to ensure its sustenance and provide affordable and quality health care for people.
Agriculture, he stated, was also being boosted and called on traditional rulers to give out land for that purpose.
He commended the Mamfehene, Osabarima Ansa Sasraku, for ensuring peace, as well as his educational initiatives that were improving the standard of education in the area.
Mr Ofosu Ampofo, for his part, attributed the poor performance of pupils at the BECE to lack of understanding of the English language and said libraries would be established in every district to inculcate the reading habit in pupils to enable them to understand English language better and improve their BECE performance.
In his welcoming address, Osabarima Ansa Sasraku, who is also the Kyidomhene of Akuapem, said his main concern was the poor performance of the pupils in the area at the BECE and said he had come up with initiatives such as free vocational classes and mock examinations under the direction of students of the Akuafo Hall of the University of Ghana.
Other measures, he stated, included the prohibition of schoolchildren on the streets after 8 p.m and a ban on computer game bazaars, while funerals were to end by 5 p.m to enable the pupils to stay at home and learn.
The Mamfehene, who stated that the initiatives had started yielding good results, was hopeful that within the next five years, 80 per cent of the pupils in the area would be successful at the BECE and be admitted to the senior high schools.