Accra, March 2, GNA - St Francis Xavier Secondary School in Wa in the Upper West Region on Thursday beat St Peter's Senior Secondary School at Nkwatia in the Eastern Region in the final of the 49th Independence Day celebration debate competition. St Francis Xavier Secondary School obtained 6.9 points while St Peter's scored 6.23 points in a highly competitive debate organised for senior secondary schools.

The debate was on the theme: "Developing and Retaining Quality Human Resource Base for Sustainable National Development Cannot be Divorced from the Needs of Society." St. Francis Xavier spoke in favour of the motion while St. Peter's spoke against the motion.

The debate started in November 2005 at the school level through to the district to regional, zonal and then to the national level. The winners would receive their prizes on Saturday. Organised by the Ministry of Education and Sports, the debate with sponsorship from SEDCO, a printing house and Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) was meant to inculcate in students the ability and skills of addressing the public through sound arguments.

Master Emmanuel Deribaa and Master Sixtus Dong-Ullo, who represented St Francis Xavier argued that in order to develop human resource the needs of the people ought to be met first. They said Ghana had so much natural resources and needed quality trained human resources to extract them instead of relying on foreign technocrats, who exploited them due to the lack of properly trained personnel with the technical and managerial skills. They also argued that there was the need to provide a sense of direction since education was to improve the individual. They said through education the problem of unemployment would be solved and societal disorders curbed.

Master Reynold Agyapong Antwi and Nana Kwadwo Kissi from St. Peter's who spoke against the motion said globalisation had made it necessary to consider the needs of other societies. They said the vicious cycle of poverty would be perpetuated when nations limited their development priorities only on the needs of the society.

Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Education and Sports, congratulated the participants for showing so much eloquence and confidence. He urged organisers to be cautious when selecting topics for debates saying topics for such debates should not be truisms because they made debating difficult.

The Minister called on students to exhibit a high sense of discipline and obey the rules and regulations of their schools. "If indiscipline is not curbed at this level then it becomes worse at the tertiary level."

Mr Osafo-Maafo said it was unfortunate that St Peter's had to be closed down due to acts of indiscipline. "I feel sad when students instead of using the laid down procedures and structures to seek redress, resort to hooliganism and radicalism." He said teachers were responsible to give protection to students because the students were entrusted into their care so that parents would feel at ease.

At the moment cases of indiscipline at some schools did not give parents the comfort to feel that their children were well protected, Mr Osafo-Maafo said.