The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has commended old students associations in the country who have been contributing to complementing government’s efforts at providing school infrastructure, learning and teaching materials.
The Vice President singled the Bolgatanga Senior High Secondary School Old Students Association popularly known as “ Aka-Tangabisi” as one of the old students associations in the country which had contributed enormously to the development of the Bolgatanga Senior High School, and entreated those who have not yet joined the bandwagon to do same.
Dr Bawumia made the commendation in a speech read for him by the Minister of State at the Office of the Vice President, Alhaji Abubakar Saddique Boniface, at the 8th Speech and Prize Given Day of the Bolgatanga Senior High School which coincided with the launching of the school’s golden jubilee planned to be commemorated next year.
Speaking on the theme “Sustaining Free Quality Second Cycle Education for All Ghanaians; The Role of Stakeholders,” the Vice President stated that quality education could only be attained and sustained if all stakeholders including parents, students, teachers and non-teachers, communities, traditional and religious leaders and Civil Society Organisations(CSOs), among others, were involved in the implementation processes.
He said that the government alone could not do it all and therefore stressed the need for all to partner with the government to help address the challenges confronting the educational sector.
“Whilst government through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service will continue to create the very conducive atmosphere for learning including the provision of school infrastructure and learning materials, others including old students associations must come on board,” he stressed.
The National President of Aka-Tangabisi, Colonel (retd) Mbawine Atintande in a speech read for him, stated that since the establishment of the association in 2003, it had contributed immensely to the development of the school.
He mentioned the procurement and donation of a brand new pick-up to the school, funding of the completion of streetlights for the school, the donation of18 Samsung tablets, two servers containing Science, Technology, English and Mathematics materials and Audio Visual Learning Materials and past questions including marking schemes.
The National President stated that plans were far advanced to provide the school with the-state-of-the-art ICT laboratory for both teachers and students.
He added that the association also provided support for students of the school to participate in the last National Science and Mathematics Quiz competition.
He warned the students to stay away from acts of vandalism and to concentrate on their studies, whilst the association complements the efforts of the government to help provide them the needed infrastructure for teaching and learning.
The headmaster of the school, Mr Afelibiek Ababu, appealed to the government to complete the 12 and six unit classroom blocks that had been abandoned, to make room for adequate classrooms for teaching and learning.
He also reiterated the need for the government to help the school with funding to construct a fence wall to prevent encroachers as well as recruit non-teaching staff, especially cooks to beef up the kitchen staff.
From Samuel Akapule, Winkongo
