Akyem Oda, July 16, GNA- Mrs Stella K. Nanor, the Birim South District Director of Education at the weekend reminded parents that the best legacy they could bequeath to their children was sound education. "One can leave money but it will surely get finished, cocoa farms can be infested with diseases or bush fires can raze down the farms, but when one is educated his knowledge increases as he grows older", she said.

Mrs Nanor who was speaking at the Open Day and Graduation ceremony of the Hecta International School at Akyem Oda said education was a vital tool for development, adding that education of children was of prime importance to the government. She advised parents to provide their wards with the needed items and to visit schools to know at first hand the needs and performances of their children.

Mrs Nanor announced that under the education reforms, which takes of in September this year, a new National Inspectorate Board (NIB) outside the Ghana Education Service (GES) but under the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports would be responsible for periodic inspection of Basic and Secondary schools to ensure quality education. She said the NIB would ensure that schools were inspected at least once every three years by trained inspection panels to ensure quality standards.

The district director said in all the reforms, the private sector should be partners, "proprietors should charge the approved fees; provide adequate classrooms, teaching and learning materials and good teachers who would be able to implement the reforms".

Mr Wilson Y. Hagan, General Manager of the school in an address expressed his worry about the non-payment of fees by some parents who accumulate their arrears and later remove their wards to other schools without notice.

He said the high cost of running the two school buses, which needed maintenance coupled with the refusal of some of the students to patronize their use was a challenge facing the school. Mr Hagan refuted allegations that educational standards in the school had fallen and said last year when the District Assembly organized a quiz competition for all private and public schools in the area, Hecta came first.

"Recently too, a quiz competition organized by Birim South students for basic public and private schools in the district, we came second" so those allegations are false.