Minister Urges Maintenance Culture

THE DEPUTY Eastern Regional Minister, Gustav Narh-Dometey, has appealed to Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of maintaining government, corporate and private property with the view to preserving them for prolonged use.

Narh-Dometey made the appeal while commissioning a ?550 million dormitory block donated to Okuapeman Secondary School by its Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and the Ghana International Women's Club (GIWC) last Saturday.

He observed that several magnificent buildings, offices, hospital equipment that were recently commissioned amidst fanfare have become a pale shadow of themselves due to reckless use and lack of maintenance.

"I wish, therefore, to appeal to those of you who will be housed in the building or any property for that matter, to take good care of it and handle it as your own property. This will ensure, no doubt, that the building will remain strong, beautiful and habitable and serve the purpose for which it was built", the professional architect stressed.

The minister also entreated the students to be spurred on by the new dormitory facility to learn hard to achieve high laurels. Higher performance by you (students) will be the only tribute you can pay to your parents who have sacrificed in so many ways to put up this building."

Okuapeman, one of the elite schools in the Eastern Region, had been facing acute accommodation problems since the early 1990s.

According to the headmaster, Alexander Yaw Asante, the girls' plight was particularly serious as many of them with even better grades than the boys had to be turned away or at best be admitted as day students.

A resultant appeal launched by the school saw the PTA, under the leadership of Nana Adi Ankamah, soliciting funds, making personal contributions and appealing for cement from GHACEM to put up the new dormitory for the girls.

With the new facility offering extra accommodation, 274 more girls were admitted this year than last year.

This enabled the school to admit more girls than boys for the first time in its history (831 girls to 606 boys), it was learnt.

Giving details of the contributions that made up the ?550 million, the headmaster said GIWC donated ?55 million whiles the PTA gave out the remaining bulk. GIWC is further sponsoring six blind students of OKUASS throughout their courses, he added.

He singled out Nana Adi Ankamah, the immediate past chairman of the PTA, for elaborate praise, explaining that his 10-year term had been of immense and diverse benefit to OKUASS.

Nana Ankamah, who is also Regional chairman of the NPP, appealed to the government to review the current policy of deboardinising most second-cycle schools, and if possible, reverse it.

His explanation was that boarding schools have numerous advantages over day ones and turn out far better products than the day schools.

He lauded the government's directive that some of the fees previously charged by the public schools should be stopped, arguing that the relief has made many parents better off even in the harsh conditions under HIPC.

He expressed the hope that a further step will be taken to improve the service conditions of teachers with the overall view to enhancing teaching.

"If the government accepts that it cannot single-handedly finance education and will, therefore, need the support of PTAs then I am appealing that the government allows the PTAs some measure of freedom to decide on their schools' projects and how to execute them," the party chairman concluded.

The Akuapem North District Chief Executive (DCE), Dr. Eugenia Danquah-Quist was impressed by the high intake of girls at OKUASS but wished parity would be achieved in subsequent years.

She also urged the girls to learn hard to increase the number of women in government, and other important establishments in the near future.