Chief urges parents to put premium on children's education

Old Ningo, March 21, GNA - The Kpone Mantse, Nii Dortey Abotsi III, on Sunday urged parents in the Ga Adangbe Traditional Area to place premium on the education of their children so that the area could produce its manpower needs for development.

He advised parents to enrol their children in school, pay school fees, provide basic needs their basic needs and contribute to the development of schools in their respective areas.

Nii Abotsi who is also the Presiding Member of the Tema Municipal Assembly was addressing the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the Ningo Secondary School (NINSEC) at Old Ningo in the Dangbe West District of the Greater Accra Region.

He asked parents to collaborate with school authorities to organise extra classes for students in the less endowed schools so that they could catch up academically with their counterparts in the established educational institutions.

He expressed regret that NINSEC, the only senior secondary school in the Ningo area, established by an individual in the 1970's has been neglected and lacked classrooms, offices, dormitories, teaching and learning materials and teachers' bungalows.

Nii Abotsi pledged to periodically supply water to the school to help ease the acute water shortage facing the school.

Mr Christopher K. Sedefia, Headmaster, noted that education was not entirely free in any part of the world and called on parents to supplement the efforts of government in promoting education in the country.

He urged parents to pay academic user fees, feeding cost and PTA dues to facilitate teaching and learning.

Mr Sedefia said the school had to go through turbulent moments to improve academic work since it lacked many infrastructure such as teacher accommodation, school bus, adequate classrooms and boys and girls dormitories as well as science laboratories.

The Headmaster said the school spent over eight million cedis on water last academic term and had spent six million so far on the commodity this term.

Mr Sedefia said if immediate measures were not taken to provide classrooms, the school might not be able to admit fresh students for the next academic year.

He appealed to the Dangbe West District Assembly, benevolent people and organisations to build a block of six classrooms and a teachers' common room for the school.

The headmaster announced that extra tuition would be institutionalised in the school to help the students improve on their academic work and urged the PTA to cooperate with the school authorities in that regard.

Mr Sedefia said teachers had been asked to teach at least a subject after classes to improve upon academic work.

He said parents of children in the school had unanimously agreed to contribute token fees towards the running of extra classes for the students by the tutors and for water supply to the school.