Regional News of Wednesday, 5 May 2004

Source: GNA

GETFund presents bus to St Rose's School

Akwatia(E/R), May 5, GNA - The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has on Wednesday presented a 58-seater Tata bus worth 475 million cedis to the St Rose's Secondary School at a ceremony at Akwatia. The donation formed part of efforts by the Fund to ease the transportation problems facing some second-cycle institutions in the country.

Presenting the bus, the GETFund Administrator, Mr Fosuaba Mensah Banahene, congratulated the St Rose's School for its remarkable achievement in last year's Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations in which it placed eighth out of the 478 SSS in the country.

He who commended the staff and students on the feat challenged the students to do better this year and promised them that the GETFund would "do something more for the school if you improve on the previous record."

Mr Banahene advised them to take care good care of themselves to avoid contracting the HIV/AIDS pandemic which he stressed, "is real." Receiving the bus, the Headmistress of the School, Mrs Victoria Amaning, expressed the school's deep appreciation to the government and the Fund for the donation, noting that for a long time, the school had been relying on public transport, at great cost and risk, to the students when going on educational trips.

She promised that the school would take good care of the vehicle to serve the best interest of the students.

In an interview with newsmen, Mr Banahene announced that the Fund was supplying all the 25 girls secondary schools in the country were being supplied with similar buses.

He said a new dormitory block would also be built for each of them to increase their enrolment.

Mr Banahene said the Fund would also provide pilot computer centres in selected schools for which St Rose's was the first to benefit.

Mrs Amaning later conducted officials of the GETFund and dignitaries, including the MP for Akwatia, Mr K.A. Kusi round the three-storey dormitory block under construction at the cost of about billion cedis, which expected to accommodate 600 students.

In another development, Mr Kusi donated two computers and accessories to the school, which, he said, formed the first consignment of six computers, he was donating to four second-cycle schools in the constituency at the total cost of 49 million cedis. May 5, 04