Regional News of Tuesday, 15 March 2005

Source: GNA

School holds Speech Day

Adoagyiri (E/R), March 15, GNA - Professor Josephine Nketsia-Tabiri of of Ghana Atomic Energy Commission at the weekend called on the Ghana Education Service to include information and communication technology in school curricula to enhance education.

Prof. Nketsia-Tabiri who is the Acting Director, Biotechnology and Nuclear Agriculture Research Institute of the Commission made the observation during the 13th Speech and Prize-giving Day of St. Martins Secondary School at Adoagyiri near Nsawam in the Akuapem South of the Eastern Region at the weekend.

She said information and communication technology constitute a powerful tool for knowledge acquisition and it is therefore important for all forms of education and training, and ultimately national development.

"Indeed the tools of Science and Technology had the potential to provide the most effective and efficient means of converting natural resources into products for the socio-economic benefit of mankind." She said Dr Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of Ghana put into action a seven-year development plan, which was to run from 1963-1970 with a focus on the provision of adequate resources to exploit Science and Technology, including nuclear science for national development, but the military intervention led to the abandonment of the plan and the vision of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission.

He called on guardians to have the primary responsibility to guide their children into respectful and responsible citizens by providing them the necessary facilities to enhance education.

Mr Godinstone Achidigah, headmaster of the school said in his reports that out of the student population of 882, only 270 are boarders, and remaining are day students who commute about seven kilometres everyday to the school and appealed to the Akwapem South District Assembly, GETFUND and NGOs to assist the school acquire means of transport.

Mr Magunurs Opare Asamoah, Member of Parliament for Akwapem South and also Deputy Minister of Roads and Transport, who chaired the function donated 10 million cedis to the school and urged the students to take their lessons seriously in other to be good future leaders. The Deputy Minister urged them to stay away from smoking and drinking and other social vices.