Zabzugu (N/R), Jan. 15, GNA- Grameen Ghana Project, a local NGO in the Zabzugu/Tatale District has launched a scholarship scheme to assist needy girls at Primary and Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in the area. The scholarship package comprises a cash of 250,000 cedis and 300,000 cedis for the Primary and JSS schools respectively categories respectively, with an initial award covering 70 girls selected from the district.

Speaking at the launch of the scheme at Zabzugu on Wednesday, Alhaji Yakubu Bukari, the District Chief Executive, commended the NGO for its initiative and noted that the greatest asset that a country could bequeath to its children was quality education.

"It is for this reason that the District Assembly has found it necessary to support teacher trainees and other tertiary students financially to enable them to settle part of their education bills," he said.

Alhaji Bukari said education of the child was a fundamental right, which must be respected by all parents. "In this part of the country we still have several girls who have been denied the opportunity to go to school".

At the Junior Secondary School level, girls withdrawn by their parents and given out in marriage and the reason mostly assigned is poverty, he said.

The DCE expressed the hope that the scholarship scheme would be sustained to provide hope to girls and pledged the support of the District Assembly to the initiative.

Alhaji Bukari appealed to parents to allow their children to obtain the full benefits of the scheme, adding that it would be a waste of efforts and resources if girls are denied schooling.

He warned that parents who withdraw their children from school and give them out in marriage would be made to refund the full value of the scholarship. "The Assembly will also take steps to ensure that the right of the child to education is not trampled upon," he added.

The DCE explained that the provision of a scholarship scheme to assist the needy children was only a means to an end.

"It is only when our parents encourage their wards to utilise the scheme effectively by working hard to achieve good results in their examinations that we can be talking of better outcomes of the scheme", he said. Alhaji Bukari entreated parents whose daughters would benefit from the scholarship to ensure that they provide other needs of their children, which were not covered by the scheme.?

Commenting on indiscipline in schools, he noted that student hooliganism was assuming alarming proportions, saying, "alcoholism, smoking, pre-marital sex, as well as destruction of school property have become matters of concern to all well-meaning Ghanaians".

"I wish to take this opportunity to urge our students to be law-abiding. You cannot achieve your academic goals if you are not disciplined," he said.