Accra, Oct.25, GNA - Mr Sam Bannerman-Mensah, Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, on Saturday said government would do everything possible to ensure that children of school going age had access to basic education.

He said quality education could only be achieved with community involvement since the citizenry shared the burden of holistic education. Mr Bannerman-Mensah made this known in a speech read on his behalf at the 30th Anniversary Celebration and the Speech and Prize-giving Day of St. Bernadette Soubirous School at Dansoman in Accra, on the theme: "30 years of quality and holistic education: Meeting the challenges of our time." He said the total development of the child enabled him or her to be useful to him or her self and the society as a whole in the technological and scientific world.

Mr Bannerman-Mensah said the problems of the nation could be solved with a good and appropriate educational foundation that oriented the learner towards the needs of the society. The Headmistress, Mrs Mary Aquilline Cato said the school owed its existence to the vision of the former Catholic Archbishop of Accra, Dominic Andoh.

She said the foundation stone for the school was laid in 1978 but due to some logistics problems it was completed in February 1979. Mrs Cato commended the role of the Parent Teacher Association that had continued to be a pillar of strength behind the school's activities. Archbishop Leon Kalenga, Catholic Apostolic Nuncio to Ghana, said Catholic schools should be able to offer young people with the means to acquire the knowledge they needed in order to find a place in a society, which was strongly characterised by technical and scientific skill and impart a solid Christian formation.