Kwabenakwakrom (Ash), Nov 30, GNA - Mr Joseph Kwadwo Boampong, the Obuasi Municipal Chief Executive on Tuesday inaugurated a 510 million-cedi primary school project at Kwabenakwakrom near Obuasi with a call on teachers in the area not to misuse the instructional period of pupils.

The project, comprising a six-classroom block, office and store and staff common room, was carried out by the Obuasi Municipal Assembly with funding from the HIPC initiative. Mr Boampong said since the government and the assembly were committing enough resources into education, it was necessary for teachers to ensure that children benefited through the proper and effective use of the instructional hours.

"I am challenging you teachers to improve the performance of the school in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the next year", he stressed.

The MCE pointed out that the children were the future assets of the country and that was why the assembly had shown great concern about the development of education in the municipality.

Mr. Boampong charged parents to stop wasting their resources on material things and rather invest in the education of their wards. The Municipal Director of Education, Mr Joseph K. Onyinah, asked parents not to hide behind the capitation grant to ignore their basic responsibility towards the education of their children.

He lamented that as a result of the grant, some parents had shirked their duties towards the schooling of their wards, including the refusal to provide basic needs like pens and exercise books. Mr Onyinah announced that the government was supplying textbooks to the schools and warned heads of schools against keeping the books in the cupboards instead of giving them to the children for them to study. Mr Abdulai Hussain, the assemblyman for the area said the primary school, which was established by the Methodist Church in 1954 became dilapidated because of lack of maintenance and commended the government for providing the community with a new block.

"This new block has come at a good time when government was implementing the capitation grant", he said. Mr Hussain appealed to the assembly for the extension of electricity to some parts of Kwabenakwakrom and the new school.