Accra, Feb. 8, GNA - The Peki Union on Tuesday rolled-out an annual educational programme to celebrate the exploits of German Bremen Missionaries who introduced formal education into the Volta Region. The annual celebration would be used as a platform to highlight educational accomplishments, inject dynamism into formal education, create an enabling environment for seasoned academia to speak on topical issues an= d galvanise support for educational institutions in the Region. Mr Henry Yaw Mallet, Secretary General of Peki Union told Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra that: 93The celebration would be used to renew Peki-German relationships and also serve as a stage for revamping education in the Region.

"Educational infrastructure in the Region and Peki in particular are suffering from long term neglect, we need to mobilise the citizenry both at home and abroad, cooperate bodies and other stakeholders to join a special efforts in developing educational institutions in the Region," he added. Mr Mallet commended the Bremen Missionaries especially Reverend Lorenz Wulf who first set foot in Peki on November 14, 1847 to establish the first formal school in the entire 93Eweland of present day Volta Region and the Republic of Togo".

"Rev. Wulf who led the Bremen Missionaries to Peki, saw the importan= ce of having formal education in Eweland. Almost up to nearly a Century of European influence and education in the then Gold Coast that part of the country is now proud to have a tertiary institution," he said. This year's lectures and celebration would focus on 93Falling Stand= ard of Education in Ghana: How to Reverse the Trend".

As part of the celebration the Union would launch an Educational Award for educational institutions in the area.

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana and Eglise Evangelique Presbyterienne du Togo are the products of the Missionary effort of the North German Missionary Society (Bremen Mission), founded on April 9, 1836. As a result of invitation from Kwadzo Dei Tutu Yao II, Rev. Lorenz Wul= f arrived in Peki on November 14, 1847.

That glorious day marked the birth of Evangelical Presbyterian Church in Ghana. In 1848, the first school was opened at Peki with 14 boys on enrolment= , and after a good missionary work done, Rev. Wulf died on his way home. By 1911, 34 per cent of the population of Peki became Christians but the menace of World War 1 in 1914 disrupted the missionary activities and a= s a result, many of the missions were closed down.

In January 1916, the first ever publication of the Ewe Bible was brought to Keta. The significant effect of World War I on the Bremen Mission's work w= as that Togoland was divided into two; one part was put under the English and the other, under the French Government as Mandatory Territories.