Axim(Eastern Region) 31 March '99

The Right Rev. Charles Palmer-Buckle, Catholic Bishop of Koforidua, has said establishing a Ghana Voluntary Service Organisation for professionals at home and abroad to offer their skills free of charge will help develope the rural areas. At the 39th Speech and Prize-Giving Day of Nsein Senior Secondary School at Axim on Saturday, he said this is how some developed countries have been built. "What Ghana needs today is a generation that is ready to sacrifice its own comforts for the good of the nation. Just one generation and we shall be okay", said Bishop Palmer-Buckle. "Is it not possible that during vacation, qualified teachers, for instance, go to their own villages or towns to offer free tuition to help pupils pass the BECE with good grades? "How about doctors, nurses, lawyers, accountants offering to help our villages better their lot through free and regular service?" Bishop Palmer-Buckle told the students that when they become professionals, they should not be lured to stay abroad rather they should return to their villages "to give back to the soil what you took from it". The Bishop referred to the falling standards in education and said facilities in schools are demoralising. He said in some cases, "parents are hardly able to or are willing to pay any fees for the education of their wards. "Children are more easily encouraged, attracted to or even compelled to work on farms or do petty trading either for money or to pay school fees or to supplement the meagre income of the family. " Bishop Palmer-Buckle said to give a future to your children in the urban areas means you have to be reach. The Bishop lauded the work of Dr Kwame Nkrumah and appealed to the authorities of the school to re-name the school Kwame Nkrumah Secondary School during its 40th anniversary next year. Mr J.N. Essien, the Headmaster, said the foremost headache is the low enrolment and poor aggregates in the JSS. "Both the public and parents expect us to produce a brilliant academic performance yet the results from the basic level are very low and poor." He said the school has the capacity to admit over 1,000 students and has a centre for compulsory computer lessons.