Oyoko (E/R), Dec 17, GNA- The Family of the Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mrs Renee Boakye-Boaten, has donated assorted teaching and learning materials to the Oyoko Methodist Basic Schools at a ceremony on Tuesday.

The donation was made through the Global literacy Project, an educational support foundation for needy children and schools in the country.

Items donated included stationeries, story books, text books, teaching and learning materials, footballs volleyballs and a set of musical instruments, for teaching of music at a cost of four thousand US dollars.

Dr Agya Boakye-Boateng, a lecturer at North Carolina University in the US, who gave the background of the project, said it was a response to educational needs in Africa, to ensure that children in the developing world could compete academically with the rest of the world. He said in addition to the donation, the school had also been adopted by the project, as well as conducting a series of workshops for the teachers in the school to enhance their teaching capacities in modern teaching methods.

Mrs Boakye-Boaten disclosed that the foundation was made up of her children and siblings, who put their resources together to help needy children and deprived schools to improve upon educational standards. She said being an educationist and the Regional Director, she was touched by the plight of many children and deprived schools she came across and decided to form the foundation with her family as a "means of giving back to the society that has made us who we are". The headmistress of the school, Ms Vida Oku, who received the items, said the school, which was established in 1896 had produced many scholars in the region but was among one of the deprived schools in the area.

She noted that about 65 percent of the schoolchildren were either living with grandparents or guardians, and that it was difficult for their educational needs to be met, thus retarding progress in the academic performance of the school.

Ms Oku thanked the donors for choosing the school out of the lot, adding that, the materials donated were exactly what the school lacked and promised that the school's performance would improve with the assistance.

The Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Adjei Boateng, charged the teachers not to lock up the items in a room as had been the practice of some schools.

He expressed his appreciation to the Regional Director for the kind gesture and assured that the assembly would renovate the infrastructure to complement their efforts to ensure that the academic performance of the school was improved greatly.