Kumasi, Nov 18, GNA - The Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mr Joseph K. Onyinah, has denounced the surge in the sale of lands earmarked for schools by chiefs in the region for estate development and other commercial purposes.

The practice, he said, had assumed an alarming dimension and is making it difficult to expand and build new schools to meet the growing children population, especially in Kumasi and the peripheral communities. He therefore called for a united campaign to check this.

Mr Onyinah was addressing the closing of a two-week capacity building workshop for 40 Early Childhood Development teachers in Kumasi. They were drawn from Krobo Odumase (K.O), Tafo, Kwadaso, Asafo= and Santasi circuits.

Ghana Education Service (GES) jointly organized the programme with the Millennium City Initiative (MCI) to help strengthen pre-school education. Mr Onyinah expressed his determination to ensure that the training programme was extended to all districts in the region to lay a solid foundation for children's education.

He announced plans to organize free ear and eye screening for all pre-school children and those with problems would be given assistance. Mr Edward Afari Gyen, Kumasi Metropolitan Coordinating Director, said it=

was important that pre-school teachers are assisted with skills and techniques to handle the teaching of children in their formative years.