School children selected from basic, junior and senior high schools in Sunyani Municipality on Tuesday took part in a parade at the Jubilee Park in Sunyani to commemorate Ghana’s 55th Independence anniversary.

The contingents included the cadet corps of six senior high schools as well as contingents from the security services.

Addressing the parade Mr. Eric Opoku, the Deputy Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, appealed to Ghanaians to reflect soberly on the legacies the forebears bequeathed to the nation and “consider carefully what we have added to them for the benefit of future generations”.

Mr. Opoku said the nation had chalked successes in democracy over the last two decades and the international community would be monitoring “with a magnifying glass to observe the manner in which we will conduct our elections this year”.

He noted with regret the politics of insults creeping into the nation’s body politic and said this was reducing the nation’s democracy to personality attacks instead of constructive criticism of policies and programmes of the government.

Mr Opoku said the performance of pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the region was poor but said the government, through the Ministry of Education, had outlined strategies aimed at improving the situation.

Selected pupils and students of 33 primary, junior high and senior high schools took part in a parade at the Methodist Primary School Park at Odumase, capital of in Sunyani West District, to commemorate the day.

The cadet corps of some of the senior high schools also took part in the parade.

In an address read for him Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye Marfo, the Brong-ahafo Regional Minister, urged the youth take their studies seriously and to exhibit a high sense of discipline.

Mr Nyamekye Marfo said people needed to be cautious of their actions so they did not negatively affect the peace, unity and democracy the country was enjoying.

He urged the teachers, students and pupils to discourage the use of abusive language that could spark anger, especially during the campaigning period and to exhibit self control, respect rules and regulations and to respect people in authority.

Prizes were presented to deserving schools that excelled in the march past competition.

Holy Spirit Primary, Odumase Methodist JHS and Odumaseman SHS took the first positions in their categories respectively and received a certificate, football and set of jersey each as their awards.