No Teachers� Awards in Akatsi-North District

The Best Teacher Awards in the Akatsi-North District of the Volta Region is to be suspended until results of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) improve. The District Chief Executive Mr Games Gunu told an Ordinary Meeting of the Assembly at Ave-Dakpa that abysmal performances such as the 17.4 per cent last year, did not justify the event. He said the event would resume if the area gained 50 per cent or more pass in the BECE and appealed to education stakeholders to double their efforts for a turnaround in the district. Mr Gunu said the assembly could no longer grant scholarships to tertiary students due to poor finances but would back them to access the Student Loan Trust Fund (SLTF). He said Pencil of Promise, an NGO, would construct three-unit classroom blocks each, inin each of the 15 communities and that beneficiary communities would bear 20 per cent of the cost in kind. The DCE said 75 boreholes were being sunk by Life Time Wells, a drilling company, in collaboration with the Assembly which only paid for the geological surveys and the platforms. He said the 24-acre farm the assembly was undertaking with local farmer groups under a yields-sharing agreement to boost commercial farming was maturing. Mr Gunu condemned the reckless sand winning in the area and said it was destroying farm lands. He said a Skills Development Centre was to open at Afiadenyigba to train young people in employable skills, beginning with tailoring and dressmaking. Mr Gunu said a two-storey 40-room shopping centre under construction would give a big facelift to the Dakpa Market, indicating that all was set for the inauguration of the District Magistrate court at Dakpa to bring justice and peace closer to the people. The assembly, he said, had qualified for the Ghana Social Opportunity Project (GSOP) worth GH�541, 042, to construct roads and plant trees. He said the district was among the best revenue-performing ones among the 25 districts in the region.