Breakfast Is A Must For School Children, Parents Told

Parents have been tasked to ensure that their wards take breakfast before they leave for school every morning to provide nutrients for their brain to function excellently academically.

“The importance of breakfast in the life of pupils cannot be overemphasized,” Professor Kafui Etsey, a lecturer at the University Of Cape Coast, has said.

“Apart from giving them the physical energy that they need, good breakfast also boosts their mental capacity which is critical for their school performance.”

He made the call at the maiden seminar for managers of the Global Evangelical Church Schools, (GECS) at Wumenu, near Ho, in the Volta Region.

Prof. Etsey was speaking on the theme: “The Role of Stakeholders in Promoting High Student Performance in the Education Enterprise.”

About 40 participants drawn from the GECS attended the two-day seminar, aimed to promote innovative and effective education, among others.

He said research conducted to obtain information at the levels of the school, teacher, pupil and the parent on the factors, which were responsible for poor academic performance of pupils in low achieving Junior High Schools revealed interesting results.

These include the influence of lack of breakfast.

He advised that the performance in schools could be better when the various stakeholders, including teachers, parents and pupils, played their roles effectively with dedication.

The Very Reverend Dr. Edem Tettey, the Immediate Past Moderator of the Global Evangelical Church, speaking on the theme: “Christian Education: Hallmark of Mission Schools”, said Christian schools were one of the greatest tools for evangelism and discipleship in the society.

He said with the Christian Philosophy of Education, children were helped through schooling to learn about the world and their place and tasks in it.

”For the Christian child, this is done within the context of the challenge that Jesus is Lord over all creation,” he stated.

Very Rev. Dr. Tettey mentioned the core values of a Christian Philosophy of Education to include: the Centrality of the Bible, Education is Never Neutral, Importance of Parents, Importance of Teachers, Nurture in the Christian School and Responsive Discipleship in the Christian School as their Hallmark.

Mrs. Gifty Baka, the Director of Development and Social Services (DDSS), who gave an overview of the GECS, said the Church had 19 schools nationwide with about 10,000 students.

She said during her recent tour to some of the schools, she noted that the challenges of infrastructure, lack of access roads, low level of funding and the absence of Junior High Schools were affecting their enrolment drive.

Mrs. Baka said the GEC was on course in providing educational development as a social developmental responsibility.

She encouraged more congregations to embrace the idea and establish schools.

There were other presentations on Pre-Tertiary Education in the Global Evangelical Church: Policies and Legal Requirements by Rev. S.E.M. Sevor and the Importance of Data and Records in Effective School Management by Prof. Etsey.