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Mrs Lucy Awuni, Upper East Deputy Regional Minister, on Friday urged stakeholders in education to take up the responsibility of developing the sector to the highest pedestal. She said the nation could not make inroads in the sphere of development without well-informed and educated people and urged teachers and pupils to think of the sector as the means to develop their abilities. �In each of us there is a private hope and dream, which if fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation�, she added. Mrs Awuni was speaking at a ceremony to climax a week-long celebration of the Catholic Unit Teachers Association (CUTA) on the theme: �Safeguarding our Catholic and Northern Ghanaian values� which sought to draw the attention of society that education cannot be carried through without paying attention to religion. She said the role of the teacher in the nation�s development was very crucial and commended teachers for the quality and meritorious services they rendered to the country. She appealed to students to be disciplined and take their academic work seriously and urged teachers to play an effective pivotal role in the positive character shaping of pupils. Mrs Awuni stated that the main focus of government this year would be the implementation of the Education Strategic Plan that identifies new areas for acceleration to enhance effective and efficient delivery of education. That strategy among others, she noted, sought to address the challenges in the management structure and content of education to meet the man power requirement of the nation. �In order to address the accommodation problems of teachers, Municipal and District assemblies have been tasked to channel most of their educational projects to teacher accommodation in deprived areas� she added. Mr John Kubabom, Regional Manager of Catholic Schools, expressed worry about the downward trend of morality of catholic pupils in recent times and appealed to teachers and parents to imbibe accepted moral norms in children. He further called for collective efforts in dealing with the fallen standards of performance at the basic level, and said strict supervision and dedication on the part of teachers was the way forward. He commended government for its commitment to educational infrastructural development in the region. Mr Kubabom entreated Catholic pupils to live disciplined and upright lives, adding that �the catholic faith and the word of God instruct us to be the light of life for the emulation of others�. GNA