Akim Awisa (E/R), Dec. 19, GNA - A 900,000-Ghana Cedi computer laboratory for the Akim Awisa Presbyterian Boarding Junior High School in the Birim South District, has been inaugurated with a call on the school authorities to inculcate a culture of maintenance. Inaugurating part of the boarding house turned laboratory, Rev. Emmanuel Yaw Agyei, Chairman of the West Akim Presbytery (WAP), noted that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) established vocational schools in the past for the converts and local inhabitants as a means of livelihood.

He cited the Awisa Boarding School, which was established in 1925 and a vocational school at Chia in the district as those to help teach both old and young, how to read and write and work out arithmetic, so as to promote commerce and improve their living standards. "The PCG with this objective and sense of commitment has tailored its ministry in such a way as to be relevant to the society", he stated. The chairman was emphatic that the church initiated an educational system that promoted technical and vocational education in the Presbytery.

Speaking at the function, Mr. Isaac Konadu Gyamera, Headmaster of the school, said the equipment were donated to the school by some past pupils, to ensure that the alma mater became computer literate. They include screens, boards, P/Cs, speakers, mouse, pads and accessories, among others.

Mr. Gyamera stressed that 900,000 Ghana Cedis was used to refurbish part of the storey building boarding house and its installation into a "multi-purpose" computer laboratory.

The Headmaster stated that the school currently has a total population of 75 girls and 110 boys from streams "A and B", and that the authorities had plans to re-roof the classrooms and also rehabilitate the headmaster's bungalow including staff quarters. He appealed to all parents to be prepared to assist the school to settle all discrepancies, especially light bills in respect of the computer laboratory, adding that his school had become the best government JHS in the Birim South District to have such a privilege and therefore, asked the pupils to use the facility to their advantage. Mrs. Stella K. Nanor, Municipal Director of Ghana Education Service (GES), said the establishment of the laboratory was timely, since Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) had become a determining factor in today's economic and scientific world and therefore, commended the donors for the gesture. Mrs. Nanor reminded the school to maintain the equipment regularly, so as to ensure the life span of the computers and building. Rev. Charles Mensah, Presbytery Clerk; Rev. Asare Addo, School Management Committee (SMC) chairman; Rev. David Obiri, PTA chairman; present and past teachers of the school attended the ceremony, while there was excellent choreographed handkerchief waving by the School Cultural Troupe to entertain their guests.