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Regional News of Saturday, 28 July 2007

Source: GNA

Wesley International School holds speech day

Koforidua, July 28, GNA - The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Nana Adjei Boateng, has called on educational units of Churches to replicate the efforts and resources put in their model schools in other schools under their management.

He said the practice where a particular school was selected by a church as a model school and given special preference to the neglect of others was not the best.

Addressing the first speech and prize-giving day of the Wesley International School at Koforidua last Friday, he said it was incumbent on stakeholders of education, to give a levelled playing field for all children.

He said government alone could not provide quality education to all children, adding that the contribution of churches towards the quality education to the Ghanaian child could not be downplayed. Nana Boateng who was happy with the turn out of parents at the ceremony told them that a child's development was a collaborative effort between teachers and parents.

He said the responsibility of parents goes beyond paying fees and the provision of other logistics but rather, they should visit the schools and to get first hand information about their wards. The Regional Director of Education, Mrs Akosua Takyiwa Adu appealed to private schools to be circumspect in the charging of fees in their bid to maximize profit.

"It is a fact that the private school is a private venture, the truth however is that unlike other private businesses, which turn out commodities, the private school is turning out men and women who will eventually propel Ghana".

Mrs Adu advised parents to consult teachers on the performance of their children when choosing schools because the new computer selection system had come to stay.

She explained the new education reforms and urged parents to embrace the pre-school component of it and send their young children to school before they turned six years. The headmistress of the school, Rev Mrs Joyce Obeng, recalled that the school, which was started with 41 children in 1995, had become one of the best schools in the municipality as indicated by BECE results. She said all 25 candidates presented for the first time for the BECE in 2005 and 2006 passed with distinction with only one candidate who had aggregate 16.

Rev Obeng who described the parents of the school as cooperative and supportive appealed for more support to enable it to establish a library and science laboratory.