Gov’t makes GH¢71m eductional investments in Eastern Region – Minister
The government has between 2009 and 2012 invested GH¢71,981,452 in the construction of 563 educational infrastructure in the Eastern Region. The projects include three storey teachers’ bungalows, six unit classroom blocks, 18 unit storey classroom blocks, two dormitories, three unit kindergarten blocks, ICT centres, among others.
The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, stated this at the inauguration of projects at the Pope John Senior High School and Junior Seminary at Effiduase near Koforidua last Saturday.
The projects are a six-unit classroom block and two storey dormitory blocks.
The inauguration coincided with the 55th anniversary and speech and prize-giving day of the school, during which hardworking students were honoured.
The anniversary was held on the theme ““Education, the greatest treasure for the Ghanaian youth”.
“Indeed,massive infrastructural development at the SHS level have taken place in all parts of the country with accompanying equipment and furniture, as well as injection of adequate teaching staff to give meaning to the investment made in the sector”, stated Mr Ofosu Ampofo.
The minister stated that the government was committed to providing quality education to every institution of learning in order to provide the needed skill requirement to propel the development of the country.
“We have a strong belief that quality education constitutes the single most important factor that has the potential to lead us to global competitiveness, progress and prosperity”, he stated.
In that direction, he said that the government was putting a lot of premium on investment in education “because we believe that the return on investment in education of all children in Ghana is invaluable”.
“Quality education is an invaluable asset to the individual and the nation at large as it enriches the attitudes, skills and knowledge of our students who will be future leaders”, he stated.
He indicated that the government had formulated and implemented policies that had positively promoted quality teaching and learning from the basic to the tertiary levels, with special attention at the basic and secondary school levels.
To ensure that no child was deprived of basic education, he said that the government’s supply of free school uniforms to pupils in deprived communities had achieved a 75 per cent penetration in the target communities.
“Besides, we have also given out over 23 million exercise books to pupils, offered free tuition for teachers, replaced a number of school under trees and revamped collapsed science resource centres and many more”, Mr Ofosu Ampofo stated.
The Headmaster of the school, Mr Isaac L. Odenteh, expressed gratitude to the government for its financial, physical and logistical support to the institution over the years.
He mentioned government projects the school had benefitted from to include the construction of nine-unit storey classroom block funded by the GETFund, a six-unit two storey teachers’ bungalow and a 60-seater bus.
Source: Daily Graphic