Mankranso (Ash), March 29, GNA - An amount of 2.4 million cedis from the Otumfuo Education Fund has been disbursed to 12 junior secondary school pupils in two traditional areas of the Ahafo-Ano South District.

The areas are Mpasaso and Sabronum.

Each of the beneficiary pupils received 200,000 cedis and will continue to enjoy the scholarship for a three-year period.

At a ceremony to present the scholarship to the beneficiaries at Mankranso, Mr Sampson Amofah Krah, the District Director of Education, said the institution of the Otumfuo Education Fund was a practical and genuine demonstration of the Asantehene's concern for development of education in the country.

He said the Asantehene needs to be commended not only for setting up the fund but also the provision he has made by way of construction of school blocks, water supply, textbooks and dual desks to some of the schools in the district.

Nana Tabiri Gyansah III, Paramount Chief of Mpasaso, appealed to chiefs to help sustain the initiative of the Asantehene by exploring avenues to raise funds into the Otumfuo Education Funds.

Apart from making personal contributions to the fund, chiefs should also use various fora and platform to educate their subjects to contribute financially into the fund, he added.

Nana Subin Kankam, chief of Abesewa, advised the beneficiary pupils to take their studies seriously to enable them perform more creditably in their academic endeavours and to live moral upright lives. He said the only way they could reciprocate the gesture of the Asantehene was for them to study hard and not just end at the basic level but climb to the tertiary institutions.