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General News of Friday, 26 April 2002

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Invest in Children's Education - Parents Told

THE eastern regional minister, Dr. Francis Osafo-Mensah, has called on parents to invest in their children's education to ensure effective utilization of educational infrastructures being provided by the government to enhance the standard of education in the country.

He also called on parents and teachers to co-operate to ensure that every child of school-going age attends school to eradicate the high illiteracy rate which is affecting the country's development.

Dr. Osafo-Mensah, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Mpraeso constituency, was commissioning a ?63.4 million three-classroom block, office and store for Monsie L/A Primary School at Monsie in the Kwahu South District.

The project was financed with part of the Minister's MPs Common Fund and assistance from the community.

He said education is the government's priority and assured that it would provide the needed infrastructure by way of books and teaching aids for effective teaching and learning.

He advised parents to avoid spending their resources on personal effects but rather pay their children's school fees and provide them with other educational needs to supplement government's efforts to educate the nation's children.

The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Kwahu South, Mr. Raymond Osafo Djan, commended the minister for the judicious use of his MPs share of the Common Fund and urged the people to honour their tax obligations to enable the assembly finance more development projects in the communities.

He promised the assembly's assistance of 40 dual desks to the school to solve their furniture problem.

The headmaster of the school, Mrs. Mercy Gyamfi, thanked the regional minister for the construction of the block to replace the dilapidated one constructed by the people over 40 years ago.

She appealed for the construction of a JSS block for the primary school as some children from the town have to walk a distance of over five kilometres to Akyem Sekyere for their JSS education.

According to her, most of the pupils drop out of school due to the long distance involved in walking to school.

She also appealed for means of transport such as bicycles and motorbikes for most of the teachers who stay outside the town to enable them get to school early and thus ensure effective teaching in the school.

The chairman of the Unit Committee, Mr. Nuhu Ayim, appealed for the construction of teachers' quarters and for the five-kilometre Sekyere-Monsie road to be tarred to enhance the transportation of foodstuffs and cash crops to the marketing centres.