Amoaful (Ash), July 19, GNA - Mr Richard Aboagye, Amansie East District Chief Executive, has urged parents to encourage their children to acquire vocational and technical skills to accelerate the country's development.

He pointed out that, if the majority of the youth acquired vocational and technical skills, they could establish their own ventures to minimise the drift of the youth to urban centres in search of non-existent jobs.

Mr Aboagye was speaking at an exhibition and fund-raising ceremony at the Women's Training Institute at Amoaful, near Bekwai in aid of the construction of a workshop at the weekend. He regretted that some people including parents looked down on vocational and technical education and described this notion as "most unfortunate". The DCE said vocational and technical education could play a key role in the rapid development of the country and urged students of vocational and technical schools to study hard to contribute towards nation building.

In a welcoming address, Madam Veronica Odoom, the headmistress, said the school levied each student 100,000 cedis to support the construction of the workshop.

She said the school, which started with 15 students in 1968, now had 190 students and appealed for the provision of infrastructure to promote teaching and learning.

Mr John Richard Gyamfi, Chairman of the Parent-Teacher-Association, asked the school authorities and the district assembly to ensure the completion of the project.

The DCE later pledged 100 bags of cement and five packets of roofing sheets towards the project.