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The Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has cautioned students of the Abuakwa State College (ABUSCO) not to allow themselves to be misled into illegal mining popularly called galamsey in a bid to make quick money.
He said, as students, their priority was to study instead of engaging in galamsey to ruin their future careers.

The Okyenhene gave the advice when he addressed the 85th anniversary celebrations and 60th speech and prize giving day of the Abuakwa State College at Kyebi in the Abuakwa South Municipality in the Eastern Region last Saturday.

The event on the theme: “Sustaining 85 Years of Quality Education; The Stakeholder Factor", was attended by parents and dignitaries such as the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum; the Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Atta; the Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, and the Member of Parliament for the Abuakwa South Constituency, Atta Akyea, as well as religious bodies and various year groups of ABUSCO.

Convince students

The Okyenhene said "Do not allow bad people to take you to the galamsey site to get quick money because it will not benefit you and you may even die.

"Take full advantage of the free senior high school education programme and learn very well to climb the academic ladder to become useful citizens to help yourselves, parents, guardians and society in general."

To help address some of the challenges in the educational sector, the Okyenhene appealed to Ghanaians to honour their tax obligations to enable the Education Ministry to generate the needed funds.

STEM education

Dr Adutwum, who represented the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, reiterated his call on traditional rulers as well as stakeholders in education to support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education, particularly in the SHS.

He stated that for a nation to properly develop, there was the need for the collective efforts of all and sundry to work harmoniously in their respective fields of endeavour.

He assured the students of solving their challenges such as the construction of a wall, computer laboratory, science laboratory, posting of physics tutors to the school and adding the study of music to the school's curriculum.

Dr Adutwum said the free senior high school programme had increased enrolment from 830,000 in 2016 to over 1.3 million in the SHS and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions across the country.

He also announced that new measures would be taken in admitting students to the universities, for, especially, those who offered visual arts and wanted to study engineering to be able to do so.

Dr Adutwum asked the tutors and students to work hard to transform the school and move from its present 32nd position to be among the best in the Eastern Region.

The Headmaster of the school, Eric Hanson Adjei-Sarpong, highlighted on the current economic hardship in the country which was impacting on the school, and called for assistance.

He said the school's major challenge was the open pits created by illegal miners near the school and general insecurity and attacks on students.

The Board Chairman of the school, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Akoto Bonsu (retd), said the school administration continued to work hard to improve on discipline among both staff and students as well as student's security on campus.

He said the major threat to students and teachers on campus was the absence of a wall to protect students against intruders and unscrupulous persons.

Academic groups

The Chairman of the 1990/1992-year group of the school, Professor Kofi Ayebi-Arthur, advised the students to form academic groups to improve on their learning and not prevent others from learning at certain areas on the compound.

He said in order for ABUSCO to ultimately achieve its vision of moving the school from category 'B' to 'A', there was the need for management, teachers and students to effectively work together in harmony.

That, Prof. Ayebi-Arthur noted, would make it possible for management and teachers to speak with one voice.

He indicated that the old students were doing their best to improve the infrastructure in the school, such as the provision of a multi-purpose sports complex, septic tank for the girls’ place of convenience, biodiversity facility, mechanised borehole with poly tank and GH¢46,730 to repair the school bus.