Accra, March 23, GNA - Twenty-five students from the Tano South District of the Brong Ahafo Region have toured some important places in Accra and certain tourism sites in the Central Region as part of their prize package for emerging as champions in an essay competition organised for Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in the district. The competition, which was organised by Mrs. Lazet Dadzie, a Tema-based citizen of the area in collaboration with the District Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) was to imbue in the competitors a sense of creative thinking and to encourage effective learning among them.

The essay, which was entered by all JSS students in the area, required the competitors to write a letter to their Member of Parliaments on changes they desired to see in the constituency to enhance development.

The best entry in each school was presented for the award, which included the tour.

Among the winners was a 17-year-old deaf boy, Master Emmanuel Donkor, from the Bechem School for the Deaf.

In an interview through an interpreter, Master Donkor expressed delight about the tour and thanked his teachers for the knowledge bequeathed to him, which enabled him to compete with his hearing counterparts.

He disclosed that the tour had enabled him to visit the national capital for the first time and also to see very important places, which he never dreamt of seeing.

Other members of the group who spoke to newsmen were full of joy and gratitude for the visit and pledged to work harder to earn more of such prizes.

Some of the places toured in Accra by the students were the Osu Castle, the National Museum, and the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. They also visited the Elmina Castle, the Kakum National Park as well as the Village of Hope at Gomoa Feteh, all in the Central Region.

At the Castle, the students had an interaction with the Chief Director at the Office of the President, Mr. Christian Adu Atiemo. He congratulated them for emerging as winners in the competition and encouraged them not to rest on their oars.

Mr. Atiemo urged them to make the sky their limit in the pursuit of their academic ambitions and encouraged them to resist tendencies that could lead them into irresponsible conducts.

Later in an interview, the organiser of the tour, Mrs. Dadzie who is also the Managing Director of the African Network Travel and Tours, pointed out that children had ideas to contribute towards community and national development when well tapped.

The competition was aimed at making the children conscious of their potentials and spur them on to develop their talents, she added. Mrs. Dadzie advised parents and teachers not to neglect their children in decision making, especially on issues that affected them and in domestic matters.

She this would enable them to do critical thinking and also respect the views of others.

Earlier in an interview with the Tano South District Director of Education, Mrs. Veronica Esuman Nelson, she expressed delight about the programme and commended Mrs Dadzie for her initiative and visionary ideas.

She said the competition had exposed the students to a healthy competitive academic work, which would urge them on to be studious. She appealed for sponsorship from corporate bodies and individuals to sustain the programme.