Politics of Sunday, 27 February 2005

Source: GNA

MP announces prime agenda for his constituency

Agona(Ash) Feb 27, GNA----Mr Henric David Yeboah ,Member of Parliament(MP) for Afigya Sekyere East Constituency has said his prime agenda for his constituency was to promote quality education, sports and agriculture.

He stated that he would therefore, collaborate with the Afigya-Sekyere District Assembly (ASDA), the district directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in achieving his stated objective, noting that the task ahead needed a concerted effort. The MP was delivering a report on his maiden three-day working visit to communities within his constituency to the ASDA at the assembly's First Ordinary Meeting on Tuesday at Agona in Ashanti.

The visit was to familiarise himself with the activities of the people who are predominantly farmers and to map up a strategy to assist them with available resources.

Mr. Yeboah in his six-page report, expressed satisfaction with the extent of development in his constituency and the district at large. He however, had a reservation about poor enrolment in some schools, insufficiency of teachers and sanitation, which, he said, needed urgent attention.

He said there were incentive packages for teachers to enable them to accept posting to the rural areas and for schools that distinguished themselves as some of the measures he had instituted towards solving some of the identified problems.

The MP humbly appealed to the District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to step up its supervisory role over teachers to enhance teaching and learning.

Touching on sports, he said, he would promote a healthy competition among the schools to enable the students unearth their talents in that discipline Mr. Yeboah, however, cautioned school authorities not to promote sporting activities at the expense of the students' education, noting that students with sound academic background performed better in sports than their counterparts with low academic standing.

On agriculture, the MP emphasised that the various schools would be encouraged to establish demonstration farms after which annual schools agricultural exhibition would be instituted and awards given the best five schools in the competition.

He expressed the hope that the initiative, if embraced, would encourage students to take farming as a vocation after school, and as well help curb the problem of rural- urban immigration. The MP drew attention to the toilet situation in the rural areas, saying they were reminiscent of the colonial era and urged the assembly to improve upon them.

Mr. Kwasi Karikari Achamfour, the Presiding Member (PM) lauded Mr. Yeboah for his noble objective and pledged the assembly's support and cooperation to help him realise his socio-economic development objective.