<<Print>>

The Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has put in place measures to ensure that Junior High School students in the area score 100 percent in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) by the year 2016. Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa has already provided one pick-up vehicle and eight motorbikes for Circuit Supervisors to intensify supervision in schools in the district to help advance teaching and learning, and enable the candidates who would be writing the BECE to score one hundred percent. Speaking at a durbar to climax activities marking the 60th Afenorto festival of the chiefs and people of the Mepe traditional area in the North Tongu District, Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa stressed that education was the key to the development of every society, and that the zero percent scored by some schools at the BECE was a major concern to many stakeholders, hence the personal initiative to reverse the trend. Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa continued that he had instituted a scholarship award scheme for the best BECE candidate in the area to enter into Senior High School (SHS), and that similar incentive packages hadbeen made available for teachers who distinguished themselves in the discharge of their duties, and asked students in the area to take advantage of the numerous opportunities offered them and study hard. The MP observed that one issue that affects teaching and learning in the area was lack of teachers in most of the schools in the District, noting that more teachers were found in schools in towns, whilst schools in rural parts of the district were without teachers. He stressed that the rationalisation exercise embarked upon by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to redistribute teachers was vital, because it would ensure that the situation where some schools were without teachers would be addressed. Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa announced that following a request made to him by the Mepe Traditional Council, Mepe Development Association (MDA) and the Federation of the Blind in the District, he had provided one computer each to them to aid their activities. Apart from this, the government, he noted, had also provided computers for the newly built Mepe Community Social Centre to pave way for the people in the area to learn, as well as to make good use of the facility. He commended the chiefs and people of the Mepe traditional area for using the Afenorto Festival for the past 60 years to maintain peace, even at the time that they were preparing to install a new chief after the passing on of Togbega Kwao Anipati, the former Paramount Chief. The Minister for Chieftaincy Affairs, Dr. Henry Seidu Dana, on his part, noted that the chieftaincy institution should serve as the vessel of unity and not disunity, noting that festivals should also be used to promote peace, as the chiefs and people of Mepe have been doing. The Volta Regional Minister, Madam Helen Adwoa Ntoso, said the government would do everything possible to support the development of the Mepe Traditional area and the entire District. She further added that festivals should be used to address social issues that affect development, such as teenage pregnancy, which, she said, was always a major concern to stakeholders. The North Tongu District Chief Executive, Madam Delphia Fafa Agbai, said as a new District, there was the need for all to cooperate to accelerate development.