33 Teaching, non-teaching staff honoured... In Lawra District (Page 11, Jan 28)

Story: George Folley, Lawra

THIRTY-THREE teaching and non–teaching staff in the Lawra district of the Upper West Region have been honoured at a ceremony at Lawra.
The ceremony covered the period 2007, 2008 and 2009.
The award winners were given television sets and radio cassette recorders. The ceremony also witnessed the distribution of a total of 164,562 exercise books and 2,000 new free school uniforms to school children in the district.
Addressing the function, the District Chief Executive, Mr Samson Abu said the assembly and its development partners had constructed a number of educational facilities in the district since 2009.
“In 2010 seven school blocks were constructed across the district and many others are currently under construction while GH¢68, 139.20 was also given to students of all categories as financial support for the 2009 /2010 academic year,” he added.
He said about 7,000 pieces of dual desks were also distributed to basic schools with additional 900 being assembled for distribution.
According to him, inspite of these, a lot more was needed to attain real quality education in the district and therefore called on all School Management Committees (SMCs), Parent- Teacher Associations (PTAs) and other stakeholders to contribute their quota to the betterment of the younger ones.
Mr Abu noted that the attainment of quality education would forever remain a mirage if the teacher who was at the centre of education was not well- resourced and motivated and it was in this light that the government had instituted the best teacher awards programme to reward teachers who excelled in their work and were dedicated and exhibited professionalism in their work.
He was not happy about the performance of students in the junior high schools in the area and therefore urged teachers to rededicate themselves and endeavour to eschew all forms of negative attitudes.
Mr Abu proposed a district education forum where all relevant stakeholders in the district would dialogue on the way forward.
The District Director of Education, Mr Andrew Kpan encouraged teachers in administration to also participate in the best teacher award competition.
He commended the award winners on their achievement and hoped this would spur them on to achieve greater heights.