Savelugu, Feb. 24, GNA - The Ghanaian-Danish Community Programme (GDCP), a Danish NGO has provided a 132 million-cedi girls' hostel for the Savelugu Senior Secondary School at Savelugu as part of its social responsibility to the people to promote quality girl education in the area.

The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the school contributed 13 million cedis towards the project while the Savelugu-Nanton District Assembly provided six million cedis towards the project. Speaking at the handing over of the hostel at Savelugu on Friday, Mr. Alhassan A. Alhassan, GDCP Programme Coordinator said the organisation had for the past years, provided similar hostels for the Tolon, Kumbungu, and Pong Tamale Senior Secondary Schools at a total cost of 460 million cedis.

He said as a social development organisation, the GDCP was interested in promoting maintenance culture among the people within its programme area and it had therefore, paid 12 million cedis into the maintenance committee account as seed capital for the maintenance of the hostel.

Mr. Alhassan appealed to the Savelugu-Nanton District Assembly and other stakeholders in education to support the fund to grow, saying that the GDCP would continue to support the development of social infrastructure in the district up to the end of 2006. He said the GDCP would continue its capacity building programme up to the end of 2008, targeting PTAs, traditional authorities, Unit Committees and community-based organisations.

The GDCP Programme Coordinator said the capacity building programme was to strengthen civil society organisations to be able to advocate and mobilise internal and external resources for development. He announced that the GDCP and the assembly would soon open collaborative discussions with the directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to give basic training to pupil teachers within the Savelugu-Nanton District to enhance their performance in the classroom.

Mr. Paul Kelly, Headmaster of the School, said about 140 boys and 125 girls were sharing the inadequate hostel facilities at the school, which were in a deplorable state.

"Immediately day breaks, these students pack their bedding to the few rooms that serve as hostels," he said adding: "The school is also compelled to rent accommodation in the town for some of the students to enable them to have access to secondary education."

The Headmaster said provision of the facility would help the girls to feel comfortable to study and promote girl education in the area and appealed to the community to provide the school with a kitchen and a dining hall for the Government to consider upgrading the school to a boarding status.

Madam Adriana Kandilige, Savelugu-Nanton District Director of Education, expressed concern about the low admission and enrolment of girls at the basic and second cycle schools within the district. She attributed the situation to some traditional and cultural beliefs that had marginalized women. 24 Feb.06