Mim (B/A), Nov.16, GNA - Mr. Charles Amaning Danso, Brong-Ahafo Regional Manager of Seventh-Day Adventist Educational Unit has advised teachers to take advantage of the Government's Distance Learning Education programme to upgrade themselves in the profession.

He said higher qualifications would enhance their professional competence and improve their standard of living. Mr. Danso gave the advice at a meeting with teachers at the end of a five-day familiarization tour of SDA basic schools within Atebubu-Amanten and Sene districts at Mim. The tour was to acquaint himself with problems of teachers and non-teaching staff, conditions of SDA schools in the districts and how best the School Management Committees and Parent-Teacher Associations could assist to solve them.

Some of the schools visited were at Mim, Atebubu, Amanten and Old Konkrompe, in the Atebubu-Amanten district and Kwame Danso and Kajeji in the Sene district.

Mr. Danso had discussions with District Directors of Education on how best the Directorate could assist to solve problems of SDA schools. Mr. Thomas Addo, Assemblyman for Mim complained about lack of electricity in the town, that had led to most of the teachers resided at Atebubu, six miles away.

He said they report to school late, and appealed to the teachers to stay at Mim since the people were prepared to provide them accommodation.

Mr. Addo commended World Vision International for providing a school block and furniture for the nursery school. Mr. Moses Gorbor, Headmaster of the JSS expressed concern about the attitude of some parents in the town, that had made them withdraw their children from the school to Atebubu.

He said the teachers had been intensified efforts for parents within the nearby towns and villages such as Watro and Konkrompe to enroll in the JSS and urged the parents at Mim to retain their children in the school. Mr. Gorbor complained about lack of a place of convenience and urinals in the school, and called for assistance to the school authorities as well as efforts to demarcate the school land to avoid encroachment.