Bawku (U/E) Jan 21, GNA - Eighty-eight facilitators of the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, in the Bawku Municipality of the Upper East Region have been presented with an incentive package valued at 85 million Cedis in recognition of their dedicated services.

The package, which included 20 bicycles, 13 sewing machines and 55 packets of roofing sheets, was arranged with sponsorship from the World Bank.

The recipients were selected from 130 facilitators in the municipality who after their training in 2000, had been able to pass out 70 per cent of their learners.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, the Upper East Regional Director of NFED, Mr. Francis Akurugu Asampana, said the package was to reward hard working facilitators and to rekindle the need to sustain the functional literacy programme in the area.

He expressed concerns over the apathetic attitude of people in the three Northern Regions towards the programme after failing to undergo formal education.

Mr. Asampana commended the facilitators for their selfless dedication to duty and urged them to work harder to cover more communities to reduce the illiteracy gap.

Mr. Asampana said the programme has impacted positively on the lives of the people socially, economically and politically, adding that it has changed many families drastically.

The Bawku Municipal Co-coordinator of NFED, Mr. Mathew Arah, attributed the increase in school enrolment in the area to the programmes of NFED that had made the people to know the essence of education.

He said this was achieved by the tireless efforts of the facilitators and expressed the hope that more efforts would be put into it to ensure that more people would be literate.

Mr. Arah said the programme had also helped communities to undertake development projects and sanitation programmes to reduce epidemics.

Mr. Samuel N'Lary, the Bawku Municipal Coordinating Director, appealed to the facilitators not to rest on their oars with the achievement made so far, but that they should impact on the nation's march towards development.