The Attafuah Senior High Technical School (ASTECH) at Akim Oda in the Birim Central Municipality, has held an open day to showcase students� handicrafts and artworks to the public.
The school�s drama group, cultural troupe and the choir also put up splendid performances to the great admiration of fellow students and members of the general public.
The open day was under the theme: �Promoting the image of Attafuah Senior High Technical School�.
Speaking at the function, Mr Yaw Owusu Boateng, Member of Parliament (MP) for Akim Oda, called for a shift from the traditional stereotype academic order to a more dynamic one, imbued with creativity and talent development.
The MP noted that through creativity and talent, children were able to develop and to become self-conscious of themselves to contribute towards national development.
He promised to organize a free training programme for chemistry tutors in the Birim North, Birim South, Akyemmansa Districts and the Birim Central Municipality as well as to sponsor a brilliant but needy student at the university level.
Mr Boateng urged the youth to be advocates and adherents of the nation�s culture as it contains progressive and developmental values for self and national progress.
The MP also commended the school board, the staff and the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) for their efforts in raising the academic standards of the school.
Mr David Afram, Municipal Director of Education, outlined the importance of the day saying: �Open Day is a special day when the public are allowed to visit a particular school��
Therefore, he urged parents to normally attend open days because it offered them the opportunity to learn at first hand the progress of their children.
Mr Afram advised the tutors to put in their maximum best to help the students and also asked students to eschew laziness, drunkenness and other negative tendencies.
Mr Francis B. Ghartey, Chairman of the school�s PTA, said the school currently was financially not sound and had a lot of infrastructural difficulties.
He, however, said the PTA had managed to assist the school with staff accommodation, construction of clerical staff office and computer laboratory, KVIP and potable water. He added that the PTA is currently in the process of constructing a school hall complex.
Mr Johnson Yeboah Gyeke, Headmaster of the school, said ASTECH is a royal basic institution established in 1896 by the colonial government and became one of the experimental Junior Secondary Schools established in September 1978 by the Ministry of Education.
Mr Gyeke said it was up-graded in September 1991 to the present status of a full-fledged Secondary/Technical Co-educational institution.
The headmaster said the students had excelled in other areas with many of the products competing favourably with their counterparts in other institutions and also on the job market.
He said ASTECH received a 33-seater Eicher bus in June 2009 from government for emerging winners of the Eastern Regional Girls Volley ball competition.
Mr Gyeke later called on individual and organisations to support the ASTECH to overcome its infrastructural difficulties.
Earlier in a welcome address, Dr Adolph Appiah, Board Chairman of the school said strategic measures had been put in place to help upgrade the school�s image and infrastructural needs.
Some of the measures, he mentioned were the provision of staff accommodation, additional classrooms and dormitories, improvement of lighting system and the procurement of vehicles.
He said the board had also decided to establish an award scheme for best students and tutor to improve academic work.
ASTECH currently has an intake of 830 students with 43 tutors and 24 non teaching staff.
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