A retired educationist, Mr Thomas Oppong Asante, has called on the Ministry of Education and the Bono Regional Coordinating Council to take immediate steps to ensure the operationalisation of the regional library in Sunyani.
According to Mr Asante, the inability of authorities to complete the multi-purpose library project initiated since 1996 was worrying and that it was affecting academic performance of students and pupils of the region.
Mr Asante, who stormed the Sunyani office of the Ghanaian Times yesterday, lamented that the situation does not endanger any serious academic activity of the youth, especially school children who would be holding the fort after current leaders bow out from the scene.
He explained that the poor reading culture among the youth in some schools in the region could remotely be attributed to a non-functional library in the region.
The 65-year-old retired educationist, also known as “Teacher Tommy” observed that the region was lagging behind in terms of human resource due to poor educational infrastructure, stressing that education was the only way the gap could be bridged.
He, therefore, appealed to opinion leaders and all those who matter to speak out before it was too late.
“While other regions in the country could boast of two or more functional libraries, same cannot be said about the Bono Region,” he stated.
There have been too many assurances from officials of the various governments to have the project completed but to no avail, he further stressed.
Touching on other issues, Mr Asante called for the need for the Sunyani Municipal Hospital to be upgraded to better serve the people.
The hospital he said was constructed in 1927 during the colonial administration and that most of the infrastructure needs expansion so as to ease congestion at the facility.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH SUNYANI
