Professor Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Minister of Education, has called on parents to send their children to school to enable them earn useful skills to contribute to the nation’s progress.
She said education is the best legacy to help reduce crime and promote social cohesion and advised the children to be law-abiding by comporting themselves.
Prof Opoku-Agyemang, who was at the inauguration of the one of the Millennium City Schools at Gbegbeyise in the Ablekuma West District in Accra, said the investment made by government to offer quality education to children was enormous and urged the teachers to work hard to repose the confidence placed in them.
She said she was happy with the effort of Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, for his bold initiative to end the shift system in Accra.
Dr Vanderpuije, in his remarks, said Gbegbeyise, one of the poorest communities in Accra had now got their share of a quality school buildings and thanked the chiefs for their efforts to ensure that the project was completed on time.
He said the school which has Information Communication Technology (ICT), community centre, library and science laboratories respectively was designed to offer high quality education and increase access to basic education.
He said: “Changing lives is not about the facilities but commitment,” adding that “we are fulfilling our promises through the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and hope the people will be dedicated to education.”
Madam Oren Whyche-Shaw, USAID Representative for Africa said “investing in essential educational infrastructure is to improve economic growth, attract foreign investment, create new jobs and ensure the prosperity of each and every Ghanaian child.”
She said the goal of the USAID/Ghana’s education programme is to ensure that children are given the foundational skills to read with understanding in the early grades of primary school.
“USAID’s activities in Ghana is also to improve the quality of reading instruction, strengthen the management of educational institutions, improve accountability and transparency between parents, schools and local government,” she said.
Madam Whyche-Shaw said USAID through the Ministry of Education would invest 23.4 US million dollars to build district education offices, junior high schools, kindergartens and sanitation facilities in all the ten regions in Ghana.
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