Pokuase, (GAR) June 20, GNA - Pastor Godfred Nii Lamptey, Proprietor of Shepherd International School at Pokuase near Accra at the week-end appealed to institutions, organisations and NGO's for assistance to enable children and the youth in the community to acquire needed education.

Addressing the Parent-Teacher-Association (PTA) meeting of the school at Pokuase, Pastor Lamptey said the rationale behind the establishment of the school is to assist the community to overcome its educational problems.

"The dream for establishing the school has now become a mirage because of financial constraints but the children and the youth need to be assisted hence the appeal for assistance," he added. Pastor Nii Lamptey, who is also the Founder of the Shepherd Bible Church at Pokuase said the school which began in 2000 with 15 children now had 300 pupils from the cr=E8che through nursery to primary five needed more infrastructure to cater for the pupils in primary six and the Junior Secondary School (JSS) next academic year. He said, being a farming community parents had difficulty in paying the school fees of 50,000 per pupil per term, therefore, the management was unable to pay the teachers well for effective and efficient teaching as well as the completion of the primary six and JSS blocks which were at the lintel level.

Pastor Nii Lamptey said the school was however, being supported by the church and appealed to parents and guardians to pay the fees of their children and wards on time for the smooth administration of the school.

Mr Daniel D. Dodoo, Assemblyman for Pokuase, said it was the responsibility of parents to send their children to school but expressed regret that some parents in the area had shirked their responsibilities. He said it was unfortunate to see children playing truant and loitering during wake-keeping in the night without any parental care and warned parents to be more responsible.

Mr Gilbert Quartey, Greater Accra Regional Director of the Non-Formal Education Division of the Ministry of Education and Sports, called on parents and guardians to visit their children and wards at school regularly to discuss matters affecting the children with their teachers.

In an open forum the parents called for the re-introduction of assessment of the children by the management to be abreast with their performance and to encourage them to improve on their academic work.