The Okyehene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin has expressed concern about the falling educational standards in the country saying "the educational standards that we used to be proud of has declined to its lowest ebb."

Speaking at the first Speech and Prize-giving Day of SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary and Junior Secondary School (JSS), the chief lamented the poor nature of school facilities in the East Akim District.

"Of the 160 towns and villages that I toured, only a few of the children had set eyes on a computer," he emphasized.

It may interest you to know, Osagyefo Amoatia continued, that teachers had also contributed to the fall - explaining that in one of the schools he visited, a teacher had misspelt "nearer" to read nerer with this inscription on the board - "Nearer my God to thee" and questioned the type of products such a teacher would come out with.

Whiles commending the best JSS student, Emmanuel Dua Sakyi to strive to achieve higher academic laurels, he enjoined parents to forgo certain worldly pleasures and channel the monies they spend on alcoholic beverages into investment of their children.

He stressed that the greatest tribute a child could pay to his parents was for the child to bare out his heart and say "I have reached this status in life because my parents suffered for me."

With pessimism in his voice, Osagyefo Amoatia wondered whether the present crop of youth would be able to take up the reigns of the country when they (elders) are no more.

With this in mind, he threw a challenge to parents to be responsible towards their wards saying "they did not ask to be born but we have a moral right to cater for them."

In a speech read on his behalf, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Gustav Narh-Dometey stated that for Ghana to achieve a sustained socio-economic development, she ought to sing issues on childhood development to the forefront.

Children, he noted, were useful assets of every society and consequently deserve every attention to help develop their innate potentials.

He announced that the NPP government would create the right environment to facilitate the establishment of adequate early childhood development facilities aimed at giving children a strong mental, moral, spiritual and academic foundation for quality education in the country.

The minister noted that society was undergoing rapid socio-economic challenges due to the influx of foreign cultures and warned the youth to desist from acts that would detract them from their successful development and general well-being.

Speaking with nostalgia, Dometey decried the attitude of the youth saying they do not demonstrate the docile facial behaviour of religious humility and meekness known to us in the past.

"We are, therefore, faced with the task of accommodating and trying to mould the generation of our sons and daughters into the acceptable society," he lamented.

The headmistress of the school, Mrs. Juliana Sebie Kono, enumerated the achievements of the school and appealed to well-meaning individuals and organizations to provide them with a bus to offer commuter services for the pupils.

The National Director, SOS Ghana, Mr. Bruno Fugah, appealed to the Okyeman Educational Fund to reach out to children especially girls and also help to upgrade the school to secondary status.