Nkoranza (B/A), July 27, GNA - Members of Nkoranza Students Union have held discussions with the staff and students of Nkoranza Secondary/Technical School on problems affecting the education of the youth and how to improve the fallen standards of education in the area. The students as part of their vacation activities, organised programmes to educate parents and guardians on the importance of education and the need for them to support the education of their wards and children.

The students also assisted the final year students in the three Senior Secondary Schools in the district to prepare towards the on-going examinations to make up for the classes lost, as a result of the strike action of the National Association of Graduate Teachers. Mr Patrick Owusu-Barimah, vice-president of the Union, advised the youth against travelling to Libya for onward journeys to Europe and urged them to take their education seriously to enable them to obtain good employment.

He said the lack of well-educated women, as role models in the communities was affecting the development of women and called on parents to ensure that their female children go to school.

Mr Kwabena Agyemang-Badu, the District Director of Education, commended the students for their concern for the education of the youth.

He announced that 750 million cedis had been allocated for the support of basic school education in the area, under the Government's Pilot Programmatic Scheme (PPS) project or the fee-free education programme for 40 deprived districts, which includes Nkoranza. Mr Agyemang-Badu urged school authorities in the area to check truancy among students and expressed worry that some of them were frequently seen roaming about during class hours. He warned that any student caught taking hard drugs or alcoholic beverage would be dismissed, as such behaviour led them into acts of indiscipline and unnecessary unrests in schools. Mr Kuffour Abdullah, Assistant headmaster of the school, expressed gratitude to the Union for assisting the final year students to prepare for their examinations.

He appealed to the Parents Teacher Association (PTA) of the school to help fence the school to check the students from sneaking out to town. Mr Augustine Osei-Fosu, the PTA chairman, advised the students to be law-abiding and respectful to their teachers to encourage them to give off the best.

Mr Abubakari Ankoma, headmaster of Busunya Secondary School and Mr Yaw Ntim-Korsah, acting headmaster of Yefriman Secondary School, where the students rendered voluntary services sent messages of congratulations to members of the Union.