'Government is committed to quality education'

Daily Graphic, Pg 11, Oct. 29/08

Story Rebecca Quaicoe Duho, Amasaman


THE government is committed to using quality education to empower the youth to take up the mantle of leadership when their time is due, the Deputy Greater Accra Regional Minister, Ms Theresa Amerley Tagoe, has stated.
She said, knowledge and skilled labour force constituted the greatest assets of a nation, but if a child of school age was compelled by circumstances to go into child labour, that asset was destroyed forever.
Ms Tagoe noted that “Education as a tool empowers and expands the resource base of a nation leading to sustainable economic and social development.
The Deputy Minister was speaking during the Greater Accra Regional celebration of this year’s National Children’s Day, organised by the regional directorate of the Department of Children at Amasaman.
The day was marked with the theme, “Children at the center of the Children’s Act” and it brought together school children, parents, opinion leaders, traditional rulers and stakeholders.
Ms Tagoe urged parents to take advantage of the capitation grant and the school feeding programme introduced by the government and send their children to school.
She said parents who failed to take advantage of these programmes among others, introduced by government concerning the welfare of children, were hindering the smooth development and progress of their wards.
The ‘Children’s Act’ recognised children as people who cannot be ignored, she observed, and asked society to help these children attain their full potentials in life.
The ‘Children’s Act’ together with other Legislative Instruments, policies and programmes, such as the Early Childhood Care and Development policy and the Human Trafficking Act, among others have been ratified by Parliament for the survival, development and protection of children, Ms Tagoe noted.
The Regional Director of the Department of Children, Mr Peter Akyea, said the department had undertaken educational programmes in the region through its community sensitisation exercises which according to him had encouraged most parents to send their children to school.
He said his outfit in collaboration with the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU,) of the Ghana Police Service, had been able to address a lot of child protection issues which included child abuse and neglect.
On behalf of other school children in the district, a pupil from the Amasaman District Assembly Junior High School, Miss Gifty Nyadudzi, called on the society to help children to enjoy all their rights as enshrined in various policy documents including the Constitution, to help them realise their full potentials.
Earlier in a welcome address, the Amasaman Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Bram Okae said the assembly had contributed in diverse ways to place the child at the centre of development in the municipality.
He said 60 per cent of the assembly’s budget is spent on providing educational infrastructure like school blocks to improve teaching and learning adding that within the past five months, the assembly had spent GH6,000 cedis on dual desks for schools within the municipality.
The assembly is currently feeding 4,523 pupils of six different schools as well as supporting brilliant but needy children to continue their education up to the university level.