Oyoko (E/R), Dec 10, GNA - The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, (MCE) Nana Kwesi Adjei Boateng, has deplored the use of children in selling on the streets, particularly under traffic lights in the municipality at the time they were expected to be in schools. He said it was a source of worry "when in this time of the capitation grant and school feeding programmes many parents still used their under aged children to sell at the expense of their schooling". Addressing beneficiaries of the American President's African Education Initiative (AEI) and their parents at Oyoko, a suburb of Koforidua, Nana Adjei Boateng urged parents to step up their responsibilities towards their children's education to secure them a bright future. He told them that research had revealed that children who were engaged in hard work such as hawking performed poorly in their academic pursuit's whiles those who got good environment did better. Nana Adjei Boateng explained that he was not against children helping their parents in their businesses, but stressed that it should not be done at the expense of their education, and also should not put them in a situation where they could not perform well in their educational pursuits.

He thanked the Ambassadors Girls Scholarship Programme (AGSP) and the Red Cross through, which the beneficiaries were identified and called on the beneficiary schools, to monitor their progress to ensure that the purpose for the programme was achieved. In all, the program benefited 210 Junior High School (JHS) boys in the municipality for the 2008/2009 academic year. They benefited from scholarship and bursary including school uniforms, sandals, bags, text books on core subjects, exercise books, drawing boards and National Health Insurance (NHIS) premiums. The AGSP is a component to support the objective of the AEI to keep in school, girls and boys who due to poverty on the part of their parents cannot have at least basic education through the provision of a total logistical support for both beneficiaries and their dependants. The project, which is funded through the USAID, mainly targets the vulnerable, orphans and victims of HIV/AIDS and physically challenged children to ensure quality education for all children in Africa. The Project Coordinator of the AGSP in Ghana, Mrs Tawiah Agyarko-Kwarteng, said the programme, which started in 2004 had so far offered scholarship assistants to over 9,000 Junior High School Children in the Northern, Upper-East and the Eastern Regions of Ghana where it operates.

She said the programme was initially meant for girls but later on it was decided to include boys. Mrs Agyarko Kwarteng said in the Eastern Region, the Ghana Red Cross manages the scholarship programme in a number of districts including new Juaben where about 400 boys and 500 girls had benefited so far.

The Regional Coordinator of the Ghana Red Cross, Mr Asumadu Darko, said the selection was done by neutral persons through the assessment and investigation of the background of the needy ones identified. He disclosed that the bursary also included bicycles to facilitate the movement of beneficiaries who travel long distances to school, payment of their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) fees and NHIS premiums for their parents to cover the children.