Kumasi, Oct 4, GNA - Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development and a Member of Parliament (MP) for Asokwa in Kumasi, has donated a set of brass band and instruments and a 29 inch television set each, to two schools in the constituency to boost extra-curricula activities. The package which cost 6,500 Ghana cedis, were funded through his share of the MPs Common fund. The beneficiary schools were the Kyirapatre Basic and the Asokwa-Amakom Basic Schools. Making the presentation, the MP said the gesture was in response to a request made by the schools to enable them enhance the children's extra curricula activities and entertainment in the schools. He mentioned that although massive infrastructure development was essential, that alone could not facilitate education delivery, and there was the needs for extra curricula activities in schools to be given a boost to enable children develop their inherent talents. The Deputy Minister said he would make sure that the various brass bands and trumpet choirs in the schools were developed into orchestra to provide job avenues to students who could not make it to the senior high schools.

He pointed out that apart from the entertainment provision, the band could also engage the youth during their leisure time to prevent them from indulging in social vices such as drugs, premarital sex, and crime among others.

Madam Agnes Adu Boahen, Headmistress of the Kyirapatre Roman Catholic Primary School, who received the instruments on behalf of the schools thanked the MP for the gesture and commended him for his immense and regular support to schools in the constituency. She also commended Mr Osei Kwabena Adusei, a United Kingdom based philanthropist for his unflinching support for the Kyirapatre schools and called on others to emulate them. 4 Oct. 08