The Member of Parliament for Anyaa Sowutuom, Dr Dickson Adomako Kissi on Friday, inaugurated and handed over a new six-unit classroom block with a 10-seater toilet facility to Odorgonno Senior High School (SHS).
The facility which was funded by Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints through the intervention of the MP, was expected to ease pressure on the existing school building and increase enrolment in the community.
Addressing the gathering at a short ceremony at the Odorgonno SHS, in Accra, the MP said the provision of educational infrastructure for the constituents was one of his major priority areas and under the leadership of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo administration, hence the introduction of the free SHS policy.
He assured the constituents of witnessing the commissioning of other ongoing projects, saying “A school that is equipped with infrastructure facilities is likely to appreciate the better educational outcome than one that is deprived of these facilities.”
The Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim-Fordjour expressed gratitude to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for the support and emphasised the importance of the collaboration.
“This is a testament to the partnership and contribution of faith-based organisations towards the development of the country. This comes to augment existing investments the government has made in the education system. We need a stronger partnership between the government and Faith-based organisations for nation building,” he added.
The ministerrevealed that the government has for the past seven-years invested GH₵129 billion into the educational sector to ensure that no child was left behind.
He said, the educational sector had seen an improvement and increase in enrolment of about 1.45m students both in SHS and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions as compared to 2016 of an average of about 830,000 students.
“The naysayers said that it was not possible but today we’ve been able to double enrolment, Just this year alone, a total of 504,000 students were place in the high school and TVET institutions, we are increasing access and whenever you’re creating an opportunity, for a child or poor to have access to education, there will definitely be stress on infrastructure. We’re relying on existing infrastructure to put every child of school going age to school,” he touted.
For infrastructure, the minister touted that, between 2019 and 2014, there had been an increased of about 132 including classroom blocks, dormitories, science laboratories among others.
He expressed government’s commitment to investing in the educational sector to improve teaching and learning and promised to ensure the facility was maintained to serve its purpose.
Elder S. Gifford Nielsen, President of Africa West Area of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, intimated the church’s continuous support and commitment to building the nation.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR
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