Bongo (Upper East) - One hundred and fifty (150) needy pupils made up of 120 primary and 30 JSS students in the Bongo District have been awarded a scholarship package totalling ?24m by the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), a local NGO.

The package is under an ISODEC/District Assembly Girl-Child Education collaborative project, which was initiated in February this year. Under the package each of the beneficiary pupils were presented with note books and exercise books including uniforms at a durbar of chiefs and people of the district on Thursday.

Rosemond Kumah, project officer of ISODEC said, of the amount, ?9m was disbursed for fees, ?6m for books while the remaining ?6m provision of uniforms. She said ISODEC decided to go to the aid of the children in the district due to the high poverty level in the area resulting in high drop our rate of girls, especially through pregnancy.

The project officer expressed the hope that the package would go a long way to lessen the commitment of parents towards their wards as well as ginger up the girls to study hard.

J.B Atogiba, Bongo District Coordinating Director, disclosed that the Assembly was spending a total of ?5.753bn in the provision of school infrastructure including classroom blocks, toilets, urinals and furniture. He said under the first tranche of the HIPC relief fund over ?400m has already been committed to the construction of a six-unit classroom block with office, store and two urinals for the FEO Primary and a teachers? quarters for Abokobi L.A. Primary School.