Accra, Aug. 9, GNA - Mr Kofi Amponsah-Bediako, Assistant Government Spokesperson on Social Services as urged parents and teachers to give to children larger doses of moral education in addition to the acquisition of academic knowledge to make them excellent scholars.

He said there was indiscipline in the society because enough emphasis was not being put on moral education.

Mr Amponsah-Bediako, who was speaking at the second graduation celebration of Gina International School in Madina in Accra, said, "we need respectable and disciplined pupils and students in our society and what this means is that all hands must be brought on deck to make the national campaign for greater discipline a success.

"For the country to move forward in all endeavours, emphasis must be put on the development of the intellectual capacity and skills, which must begin from the school" he said.

Mr Amponsah-Bediako said no nation could progress to great heights if her people were not disciplined, adding that the Government had put in a lot of measures, which have led to the increase in the Primary Gross Enrolment Ratio (PGER) at the national level from 79.5 per cent during 2001-2002 academic years to 81.1 per cent in 2003.

He said to bridge the gap between deprived rural districts and well endowed urban schools, the policy of upgrading one senior secondary school in each district was being implemented with work on the first batch of 31 schools progressing steadily.

Mr Amponsah-Bediako said the second batch of 25 schools had been selected for upgrading and there was the need to extend education to cover all facets of life.

He appealed to parents, teachers, pupils and students to join in the national campaign on the washing of hands with soap at regular intervals to ensure good hygiene and healthier life. Mrs Georgina Dorkuvie, Proprietress of the School, it was established eight years ago with six children but now had 320 children with high standard.

She said the Ghanaian child deserved to have the best foundation in education to enable him or her to prepare for the future and said the human resource of the nation must be natured at the pre-school level. She called on parents to assist teachers in moulding the children into useful citizens by playing their role in areas such as giving them what they required for school and supervising their homework. Deserving pupils and teachers were presented with prizes.