Talawona (U/W), Feb. 21, GNA - The Centre for the Development of People (CEDEP), a non-governmental organisation operating in the Upper West Region, has appealed to the government to give priority to rural school children under its School Feeding Programme expansion efforts.

"Considering the long distances children have to walk daily to school= , the bad nature of the roads and their implication on their performance in class, there is the need that the School Feeding Programme gives priority t= o under privileged areas such as Wa West and Wa East districts", CEDEP note= d. Mr. Augustine Tugbog, Programme Officer of CEDEP made the appeal when he presented more than 100 solar lamps to school children from Talawona and Jenebob communities in the Wa West District. The provision of the solar lamps was made possible through the collaborative efforts between CEDEP and Hyronet Energy under an annual even= t dubbed: 93Tokyo Lights Africa"Project. The Project has as its objective of ensuring that bright, free and saf= e lights were provided to African rural school children. Mr Tugbog said denial of children to education in the Wa West District was on a high side and called for efforts from stakeholders in the area to address the challenge.

He said rearing of animals, early marriages, teenage pregnancy and elopement among others were the preferred choices of the people to the education of their children thereby undermining the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals in the district. Mr. Tugbog also mentioned inadequate permanent structures and trained teachers and the non participation of community members in school development as some of the challenges that were contributing immensely to the fallen standards of education in the area.

He said culture has remained a major issue affecting every sustained development efforts in the district and called on the district assembly to review its byelaws and bring in innovations into some of the cultural practices to help address menace, especially those that undermined children's education and the total development of the people. Mr. Tugbog advised parents to allow the children to use the lamps to study in the night and not to seize them to help in the preparation of night meals. Alhaji Issahaque Salia, Upper West Region Minister whose speech was rea= d on his behalf, said the objective of the project was motivating. He said the lamps would improve the quality of education of the children.