Mepe (V/R) Aug.17, GNA - Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Information, on Monday commissioned a three-unit science laboratory and four storage rooms at Saint Kizito Senior High School at Mepe in the Volta Region.

The unit estimated at GH133,693 cedis, under the Japanese Grant Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project (GGHSP), is expected to equip students with practical and experimental know-how as well as serve as storage place for their science equipment.

Over 800 students would benefit from the science laboratory.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr Ablakwa noted that the students used to attend the science class at the peril of their lives by crossing the Volta Lake in small canoes before undertaking their practical work.

Mr Ablakwa who described the project as the first of its kind, noted that it would save the students the risk of crossing the Volta Lake.

He said the project was going to facilitate science innovations which would go a long way to improve on the standard of living in the area.

He thanked the Japanese government for assisting the school with the laboratory, adding that it would enhance the teaching of science and technology in the school.

Mr Keiichi Katakami, Japanese Ambassador in Ghana, said science education was not only going to consist of memorising information from text books but also to perform experiments to improve on scientific facts.

"Students would be better equipped for their career paths ahead," he added.

According to him the embassy in Ghana had provided grants to over 100 schools since 1989.

He was, however, not happy with the level of science education in the country and said his country together with other corporate bodies with local initiatives would help to empower the people and secure a sustainable development for them.

In a speech read on her behalf, Ms Benedicta Naana Biney, Acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), said even though government had the constitutional mandate to provide the requisite facility and equipment for effective teaching and learning as well as skill development, it was evident that it needed the assistance of all stakeholders to adequately provide and achieve its targets.

Ms Biney lauded the role of the Japanese Volunteers teaching science in schools, saying "surprisingly, they worked in deprived and very distant communities."

"The government and the people of Japan have also done enough to show commitment in helping us to move closer to them in the world of technology," she added.

Ms Biney therefore charged staff and students to put the facility to good use.

Mr Stephen S.K Amekli, headmaster of the School, observed that the idea of moving students across the Volta Lake in small canoes to attend the science resource centre at Adidome had always been a traumatic experience that the staff and students had never been willing to go through.

Mr Amekli appealed to GES to open an additional Science Resource Centre in the District, commence a science elective course in the school and expand the school's hostel facilities and classrooms so it could admit many more prospective candidates.

Saint Kizito Senior High School located in North Tongu District, was established in 1980. It has a population of 417 students out which 164 are girls.