President urged to improve working conditions of teachers

Akatsi, Dec. 17, GNA - Miss Eugenia Bedzo, a pupil of the Akatsi Training College Practice School has appealed to the President to improve the working conditions of teachers, including remuneration to encourage them to work harder.

She said though teachers were hardworking their current salary levels and other service conditions did not enable them to meet their basic needs including the acquisition of descent clothing and paying higher fees for their children's education.

Miss Bedzo made the call in a message she read on behalf of children in the Volta Region to the President, at the annual President's Christmas Party for children at Akatsi on Tuesday. They were served with soft drinks and pastries amidst brass band music.

Miss Bedzo called for the location of libraries in communities to enable children to pursue knowledge through reading. She also asked for the creation of jobs for the numerous Junior Secondary School leavers, many of who had become criminals for want of something to do.

Mr Kwasi Owusu-Yeboa. Volta Regional Minister, said the President had high regard for children and would pursue policies that would ensure their qualitative growth.

He said the creation of a Women and Children's Ministry, for example, was to ensure that problems confronting children were vigorously tackled.

Mr Owusu-Yeboa said government was putting emphasis on technical and vocational education to enable the youth to gain working skills to make them employable.

He, however, bemoaned the difficulty in getting land in the region, saying the situation had compelled many investors to go to other regions.

The Regional Minister said government was making efforts to solve problems of infrastructure and other facilities facing the schools to ensure quality education for all.

He announced that 48 six-unit blocks of classroom at the cost of 400 million cedis each would be constructed in the region for some basic schools, while four Senior Secondary Schools would be rehabilitated and upgraded into model schools at a cost of 16 billion cedis each. Mr Owusu-Yeboa asked parents to play their roles towards the development of their children into responsible youths and also urged the children to study and to be obedient and disciplined pupils. He cautioned children against early sex to enable them to avoid contracting the deadly HIV/AIDS.