Mr. Kwasi Oppong Ababio, Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive has cut the sod at separate ceremonies for the construction of a six-unit classroom block for the Roman Catholic school at Abesim and Mmredane Municipal Assembly (M/A)Primary school.

The two projects, estimated at GH?380,000, are expected to help eliminate the shift system practiced in both schools.

The Abesim project which is in the form of a two-storey would cost GH? 199,089.14 while the one at Mmeredane is estimated at GH?176,551.10.

Messrs Lacasona Company Limited of Sunyani and Interkobb Limited of Berekum are the Contractors responsible for the two projects.

Speaking at both functions, Mr. Oppong Ababio reiterated the government’s readiness to eliminate all hindrances to effective education hence the construction of new school buildings and other interventions in the Municipality.

He said since the the National Democratic Congress (NDC) came to power, Sunyani Municipal Assembly had so far executed a total of 182 projects throughout the length and breadth of the Municipality.

Apart from building new school blocks, the Assembly also is on record to have constructed access roads in Sunyani Township as well as feeder roads linking other food producing towns and villages under the Assembly’s administrative area.

The Assembly, he said, had sponsored a number of brilliant but needy pupils and students to continue their education, stressing that the idea was to prepare the school-going youth in the municipality to effectively take over from the old working class in future.

He urged stakeholders like parents and teachers to contribute their quota for effective teaching and learning to complement the efforts of the government.

He said this can be achieved when teachers exhibit good morals to create harmonious atmosphere in school to make the children feel happy.

The exhibition of those virtues would also bring about love and care as well as fostering cooperation amongst authorities and parents.

Mr. Ababio also advised parents to take their wards’ education seriously by providing them with the necessary learning aids, while monitoring and assisting them in their studies.

He encouraged the pupils to be obedient to their guardians and learn hard as it was the only way they could achieve progress and become useful citizens.

He also used the occasion to caution all to distant themselves from selfish politicians who might lure them with attractive gifts to misbehave or create violence during the coming elections.

Mr. Ababio said, “those politicians who might instigate you to commit the atrocities would not be affected since they have the means to leave the country in case of disorder”. He entreated electorates in the two communities not to pay heed to such selfish politicians.

He urged Ghanaians to continue to pray for peaceful elections in December because “It is only God who chooses a leader but not a human-being”.

Reverend Cannon Timothy Kankam Dwumfour, an out-going Municipal Education Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), cautioned classroom teachers to adopt appropriate etiquettes and refrain from using mobile phones during lesson periods at the expense of the children’s education.

Rev. Dwumfour also advised parents to restrain their wards from doing anything which could be detrimental to their education but rather try and expose them to the good and disciplined lives of some citizens of their areas.

He cited Opanin Kwadwo Kyere of Abesim, who was his teacher at the Ahmadiyya Secondary School in Kumasi and currently an “international figure”, stressing that, “Opanin Kyere has been my mentor and will continue to be because of what I have learnt from him”.

Nana Kumi Acheaw II, the chief of the town who chaired the function during the first ceremony at his area, congratulated the MCE for ensuring the construction of more school blocks in the Municipality to reduce or abolish shift system in some of the schools.

Nana Acheaw assured Mr. Ababio of all the necessary support of traditional chiefs in his jurisdiction and urged his counterparts in other traditional areas of the Municipality to do same.

At Mmeredane in the Nkwabeng North Constituency, Nana Kyere Afranie thanked the MCE for making a dream come true by cutting a sod to signify the beginning of the construction of the M/A Primary school project.**