Scholarships for 15 students in tertiary institutions

Tepa (Ash), May 6, GNA - Fifteen students in tertiary institutions from the Ahafo-Ano North District are to benefit from scholarship awards by the district assembly as part of its contribution towards cost-sharing in education.

Out of the number, nine are in the universities while the remaining six are in the polytechnics. They will each be entitled to 300,000 cedis scholarship for the academic year.

The assembly approved the scholarships after Mr J.K. Anhwere, Secretary to the Social Services Sub-committee of the assembly, had presented its report on interviews conducted for the awards at its first ordinary session of the assembly at Tepa on Wednesday.

Mr Anhwere said even though the committee was mandated to select 10 candidates for the scholarship, it increased the number to 15 in view of the performance of the candidates. He explained that 26 out of the 50 applicants attended the interview and the committee, apart from the performance of the students, also took into consideration their areas of study and their academic performance generally.

The assembly expressed concern about the rate at which trees were being felled in the district and cautioned that if steps were not taken to check the situation, the area would soon be bereft of forests.

Mr Samuel Tetteh, assemblyman for Abonsuaso, who raised this issue, said forests in his area were being depleted at such an alarming rate that he was getting worried about the effect on the environment.

The assemblyman noted that even though a lot of trees were being felled in the district, it did not know the timber contractors operating in the district. He, therefore, requested that the District Forestry Officer be asked to submit the list of all concessionaires in the district to the assembly.

The assemblyman complained about the activities of timber contractors in the district, which, he sad, were rendering the roads in the various communities impassable. He expressed the fear that if nothing was done about the situation, most of the communities would be cut off during the main rainy season.