Sogakope, March 29, GNA - Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister has bemoaned the craze for money and affluence in educational institutions. He said these tendencies could divert the focus of many students from their academic pursuits, undermine discipline and ruin the future of many students.

Mr Amenowode was addressing the 47th Speech and Prize Giving Day of Sogakope Senior High School at the weekend. It was under the theme, "Alumni Support-a necessary push for alma mater development".

He said everything should be done to halt and reverse these dangerous inclinations and their potential to promote drug abuse, alcoholism and promiscuity among students. Mr Amenowode commended the staff and students of the school for the successes so far achieved and reminded them that only disciplined and well focused people could survive the challenges of the rapidly changing world.

"The school should respond to the high standard required in the world of work today," Mr Amenowode said. He urged parents and old students to help government improve on facilities in schools.

In a speech read for him, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo, Minister for Education, urged the school's administration to open channels of communication between the staff, students and other stakeholders so as to build strong relationships towards the development of the school. He urged old students to visit their former schools regularly too boost the morale of continuing students to aspire for higher laurels. Mr Kwame Tawiah Aggor, the Headmaster, said the school required additional infrastructure to cater for the 1,534 students.

He said the school needed a new dormitory block for girls, a library, school bus, as well as assembly and dining halls. Mr Aggor said the school's Parent-Teacher Association had built seven masters' bungalows and was constructing an Information Communication Technology laboratory and a fence wall around the school. Book prizes were awarded to 117 students for academic and sports achievements with former members of the schools' Board also receiving awards for their dedication to duty.