Accra, March 1, GNA - Two hundred and thirty-three students and pupils from first and second cycle schools were on Wednesday presented with their certificates for winning the Commonwealth essay and the Shankar's International children's competitions.

The competitions are annual events organised by the Royal Commonwealth Society in London and the Shankar's in New Delhi, India. In the Commonwealth essay competition, out of the 576 scripts presented for the competition by 70 schools, 194 scripts were commended.

Ghana won 39 awards out of an overall number of 205 Literary Works and 346 Art Works presented for the Shankar's competition. Miss Helena Aba Dickson of West Ridge Junior Secondary School (JSS), Sekondi, George Kojo Ampah of De Youngsters International School and Miss Vincentia Osabutey of Christ the King School won the awards for the literary works while 36 others won awards for Art works.

Mr Ekow Spio Garbarh, Minister for Education, said government is to provide infrastructure throughout the 110 districts under the Basic Education Sector Improvement Programme. The International Development Association would fund it.

Under the programme 300 four-unit teacher accommodation blocks, 100 basic one to six classroom blocks, 50 JSS classroom blocks and 150 four-seater KVIP toilet blocks would be built throughout the country. About 2,000 existing classrooms would be rehabilitated as part of the programme.

He said the Ministry of Education has set up a task force to visit the beneficiary communities to create awareness on the need for them to regard the facilities as their own and assist to supervise their construction to ensure that good quality work is done.

The task force would also ensure that community members and those using the facilities develop a culture of maintenance to prolong their use.