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Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia says students and old students of St Augustine’s college (AUGUSCO) in Cape Coast  in the Central Region must raise their heads high “because the college is a great one”.

According to him, the list of old boys of the school who had  contributed to the development of the nation speak for itself, hence the need for them to feel proud.

He made particular  reference to Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, Mr Hackman Owusu Agyemang and Dr Paul Acquah, all products of St. Augustine’s College whom he said, their  contributions to the nation’s development cannot be swept under the carpet.

“Dr Paul Acquah was my former boss and judging from his expertise as well as that of other well-known Ghanaians who passed through this college, there is no doubt that Augusco is a great college. You must therefore be proud of this school,” he stated.

The Vice President said this during the 87th Speech and Prize giving day of the college in Cape Coast over the weekend.

Speaking at the function as the special guest of honour on the theme “Raising ethical leaders for nation building; the pivotal role of students”, the Vice President noted that unemployment rate in the country today puts a lot of pressure on the youth.

He bemoaned the rate at which the youth have resorted to galamsey in their quest to fend for themselves, adding “it is  prudent for every government to pay attention to education and its quality delivery hence his government’s free Senior High School (SHS) to build human capacity Ghana needs for growth”.

Dr Bawumia disclosed that government will soon come out with a clear cut policy on galamsey to stamp it out once and for all.

“This is why the recent budget deliberates on moving the country to a whole new pedestal to provide jobs for the youth,” he added.

He further disclosed that this year, Ghana will chart a new path by putting in place a national identification system for everyone to be uniquely identified.

He explained that all major stakeholders as well as the technical team had been put together and the exercise will hopefully roll out by the third quarter of this year.

Dr Bawumia again pointed out that a unique property addressing code or system will also be introduced in July to formalise the economy and also to prevent people from engaging in unethical and deviant behaviours.

“Businesses can deliver services to any address easily with this kind of system,” he stated.

The Vice President hinted that to motivate teachers to give off their best, his government will put up affordable housing schemes for teachers nationwide and institute regular training programmes to enable them upgrade themselves.

He stated that government was  going to take up all abandoned projects In the  second cycle institutions across the country and get them work again..

The headmaster of the college, Mr Joseph Connel mentioned the dwindling number of non-teaching staff who are not replaced upon retirement as well as inadequate security for the school as the major challenges facing them.

He appealed to government to look at whatever is stalling recruitment of non-teaching staff to reduce the pressure on heads of schools who have no power to recruit.