Koforidua, June 12, GNA- The Eastern Regional Secretariat of the Red Cross Society of Ghana is offering one year scholarship to 160 vulnerable boys in the New Juaben Municipality to enable them to complete their Junior High School (JHS) education. The 140,000 US Dollars scholarship is being funded by the USAID, under the Ambassadors Girl's Scholarship Programme (AGSP), instituted by President George Bush of the USA to support education in Africa. Mr Kwame Darko Asumadu, Eastern Regional Secretary of the Red Cross, announced this at a day's orientation workshop for stakeholders on the programme in Koforidua on Thursday. He said the beneficiaries of the scholarship would be selected from 20 JHS in the New Juaben Municipality. He said the first scheme, which was being run on pilot basis was expected to end by September this year and would be extended depending on its success.

Mr Asumadu said the AGSP programme was mainly targeted at girls but in the New Juaben Municipality, it was adopted for boys. He said that situation arose as a result of a research conducted by the Red Cross in collaboration with Rural Watch, a Non Governmental Organization (NGO), which indicated that, about 60 per cent of boys, who enter the first year of JHS in the Municipality drop out of school before the third year. He said the research further indicated that, boys dropped out of school because of the death of a parent or the two parents, divorce or separation of spouses and extreme poverty on the part of parents. Other reasons were parents' inability to provide for the educational needs of their boys, parental irresponsibility and the desire of some of the boys to get rich quick to support the rest of their families.

Mr Asumadu said the programme was aimed at ensuring high retention of boys in schools in the Municipality and their transition from the basic to secondary school level and to encourage active collaboration of stakeholders in the communities in the promotion of good quality education.

He said a committee made up of representatives of the Municipal Assembly, the Municipal Directorate of Education, opinion leaders in the communities and teachers from the beneficiary schools would be formed to select the beneficiaries of the scholarship. Mr Asumadu said boys who would be considered for the programme include orphans, physically challenged; those whose parents are aged and could not support their education, those from broken homes and boys living with single and unemployed mothers. He said the boys who, would be selected would be provided with school uniforms, bags, foot wears, National Health Insurance cover and the payment of their Basic Education Certificate Examination fees. The New Juaben Municipal Director of Education, Ms Christina Agyare-Boateng, appealed to members of the various committees that would be engaged in the selection of the beneficiaries to ensure that only boys, who fall within the criteria provided, are selected. She called on members of School Management Committees (SMC) and opinion leaders to take irresponsible parents, who do not want to provide for the educational needs of their wards, to the Department of Social Welfare for the necessary sanctions to be taken against. Mrs Elizabeth Obiri-Yeboah, a member of the Central Committee of the Red Cross Society of Ghana appealed to people, who would be selected to serve on the selection committee to strictly abide by the laid down criteria.

Mr Godfred Asamoah of the Ghana Education Service, called on the stakeholders not to look only at the benefits of the scheme but what the project would achieve and urged the participants to educate their community about the programme to ensure their maximum co-operation and participation. 12 June 08