Mrs. Felicia Mac-Sallah, an Educationist who is also the Proprietress of ST. Lawrence School Complex located at Tesano in Accra, has made a passionate appeal to parents and guardians to regularly attend Parents’ Teacher Association (PTA) meetings in the best interest of their wards.

She lamented that some parents do not even know the class or stage where their children had reached on the educational cycle, including their performance in school.

The Educationist was speaking at the 30th Anniversary Celebrations of ST. Lawrence School Complex which was marked over the weekend on the theme, ‘Education Is The Master Key.’ According to her, this negative trend on the part of parents and guardians does not help the total development of school children.

“I will like to make a humble appeal to all parents and guardians to endeavour to attend PTA meetings regularly since it forms part of the development process of the child”, Mrs. Felicia Mac-Sallah underscored.

She went on to add that it was high time parents became concerned about the performance of their children and advised parents to desist from such practices.

Touching on the role of teachers in nation building, she said teachers were like porters with clay and how they mold school kids would fundamentally go a long way to help them become responsible citizens.

She further implored teachers to do more research and persistent reading in order to be abreast of modern trends of education.

The Educationist also commended hardworking teachers and staff of the school for their meritorious contributions which has helped the school to achieve success and urged them to remain punctual and committed to work.

On the history of the school, she said the school began humbly with just two students in 1982 but can now boast of close to 1,000 population.

She revealed that the school has produced about 1,600 prominent people in high places who are contributing their quota to national development.

Taking her turn to address the gathering, former Minister of Information and Tourism, Mrs. Zita Sabah Okaikoi, who was also a product of the school, threw more light on the theme of the event.

“Education plays a key role in the progress of every nation and history has proven that nations that placed education as their first priority and as their national target have done tremendously well,” the former minister of state pointed out.

She said education is indeed the master key which opens doors of opportunities for people to advance themselves and make positive contributions to the development of their countries in order to become successful.

The former minister indicated that placing much premium on education, Ghana introduced certain social interventions which were designed to ease the burden on parents and to encourage more children to go to school.

“In order to increase access to education, the government introduced the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme as well as free books and uniforms to schools in deprived communities”, Mrs. Zita Okaikoi stressed.

Touching on Information Communication Technology, she said the world had become a global village hence there is the need to spread the tentacles of ICT education for all students. Prizes were also presented to deserving students and hardworking teachers who have worked relentlessly over the 2011/2012 academic year.