Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi II, Queen of the Likpe-Gudeve in the Oti Region, has entreated communities in the area to harness the vast natural and human resources at their disposal to build school blocks and refrain from the over-reliance of donor support for such projects.
The queen, who is also the Oti Region Director of Education, was speaking at the launch of the celebration of her fifth anniversary on the stool.
This took place in the form of a mini-durbar at the RC/MA Basic School in the neighbouring community of Likpe-Abrani on the theme: “Girls’ Education – My Prime Focus.”
Touching on theme, Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi explained that as Director of Education and a queen, she was duty-bound to reach out to as many targets as possible in the administration of education, but girls were definitely her prime focus.
She said that Likpe was endowed with a youthful population and gainfully employed citizens who could mobilise to contribute bags of cement, wood, sand, communal labour and token wages for such projects at any time, without looking for help from afar.
Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi said that with hindsight, it was most appropriate to invest heavily into education rather than cocoa farms which failed to yield bountifully in past years.
“The crops could fail to yield but the immense output of education cannot be quantified,” she added.
As part of the year-long celebration, extra-classes would be organised for students in the local basic school in a decisive move to improve the Basic Education Certificate (BECE) performance of the school.
Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi said that serious discussions were also ongoing among the chiefs and queens and various stakeholders to enforce a ban on loitering by the students in the night.
She urged parents to throw their weight behind that move and warned that henceforth, parents would be held accountable for the wayward conduct of the children.
Meanwhile, Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi donated quantities of exercise books, pencils, erasers and COVID-19 personal protection equipment to the Likpe Abrani RC/MA Basic School.
She reminded the two communities as well as others in the Likpe Traditional Area to always remain united to pursue vital development goals in peace.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, LIKPE-ABRANI
