An ultra-modern community library was on Thursday inaugurated for use by students and residents of Apeguso in the Asaugyaman District of the Eastern Region.
The facility was constructed by the sons and daughters of the late Professor Ferguson Ampim, an astute social advocate for justice and native of the community who passed on to eternity some years ago.
The inaugural ceremony was held at the Apeguso Presbyterian Junior High School to mark this year’s National Mobile Library Day on the theme, ‘Reading for progress; let the child read.’
Speaking at the event, Mr Kingsley O. Darko, a member of the Ferguson family said their late father’s commitment toward education in the Apeguso community had necessitated the need to construct the library for the community.
He said the late Ferguson’s commitment towards promoting education to a higher level in the Apeguso community, could not be overemphasised, recalling his famous slogan ‘My pen my sword’ and believed that the library when utilised by the students would help in training a next generation of intellectuals for the Apeguso community and Ghana as a whole.
Mr Darko indicated that their late father’s motive was to construct a library facility for the entire community, but was not able to fulfill his heart desire hence the gesture in his memory.
He said their late father was of the conviction that, an educated community would bring massive development, therefore, there was the need to inspire the younger generation and groom them to be future leaders for Apeguso.
For his part, Mr Paul Asare Ansah, the former Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority, said to uplift the standard of education in Asougyaman, there was the need to motivate and challenge the children to study and pass out with better results, especially at the basic level.
He pledged to sponsor the first 50 candidates who would score between the aggregate of six and ten in this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Asougyaman District, to enable them to pursue their Senior High School education.
Mr Ansah said the sponsorship would cover the payment of the mock examination fees for all students within the constituency as well as the provision of transportation for final year students to their respective examination centres, in an effort to motivate the pupils to study hard and attain a 100 per cent pass within the district by 2020.
He noted that the government alone could not facilitate the needed change to every community and, therefore, it was imperative for the citizen to contribute their quota toward the change they all desire.
Mr Ansah said education was very important to the development of every community and pleaded with all the natives of Asougyaman to support the young generation to study hard to acquire skills and knowledge to benefit the society.
He also advised the children to eschew negative peer influence that would lead them into teenage pregnancy, drug abuse and armed robbery.
The Eastern Regional Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Mr Vann Korletey-Tene, said his outfit had supplied more than 200 books to the library to serve as a place of reference in every field of academia for the entire community.
He also advised parents to allow their children to visit the library regularly and inculcate in them, the culture of reading, to prepare their minds toward their secondary education.
FROM DAVID KODJO, APEGUSO
