Begoro (E/R), Dec. 17, GNA - The first ever Fanteakwa District Education Open Day was held at Begoro on Friday to show case educational activities of the district. It was organized under the theme "Quality education, the role of all stakeholders". The weeklong programme includes clean up exercises, film shows and talk on HIV/AIDS, quiz and spelling competition, football gala and exhibitions.

Speaking at the ceremony Mr Kwadwo Affram-Asiedu, Eastern Regional Minister, called on all stakeholders to support education to ensure the success of the new educational reform. He urged the youth to be disciplined and to eschew negative tendencies like drug abuse, armed robbery, pilfering and sexual promiscuity to avoid being exposed to HIV/AIDS. Mr Affram-Asiedu said despite the free education policy and school feeding programme, many children of school-going age are still not in school while the drop-out rate in schools is also on the ascendancy. He appealed to stakeholders to marshal resources and educate parents to live up to their responsibility by sending their children to school and providing them with the basic needs to curb the dropout rate. The Fanteakwa District Director of Education, Ms Mary Animwah, said untrained teachers out-numbered trained teachers in the district and this was affecting the quality education delivery in the district. She said she was optimistic that the untrained teachers' diploma in basic education programmes would reverse the trend in the district when the programme takes off in future. Ms Animwah complained about lack of office accommodation for the directorate and appealed to the government to provide a permanent office.