NORTHERN STUDENTS URGED TO TAKE STUDIES SERIOUSLY (PAGE 11, JUNE 23, 2010)

The Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS), Prof. David Millar, has advised students in the northern regions of Ghana to embrace the opportunities offered them to study hard in order to build a better future for themselves.
According to him, one thing that the north has to equal and perhaps out-do the south in is education, and as such, northern students must take their studies seriously to become better persons in future.
The Pro-Vice Chancellor gave the advice at the sixth speech and prize-giving day celebration of the Awe Senior High/Technical School at Navrongo in the Upper East Region.
He urged the students to be disciplined, listen to their teachers, obey school rules and regulations, as well as be committed, dedicated and God-fearing to make it in future.
The theme for the celebration was: “Current Education Reforms prospects for Senior High and Technical Schools-the case of Awe Senior High/Technical School”.
Touching on the importance of education for northern Ghana, Prof. Millar said the sharing of the national cake since the advent of Ghana as a nation state had always been skewed, adding that even the colonial government intended that the north should be under-developed in order to provide cheap labour to cocoa and the mining-rich south.
“This practically translated into ‘a no school concept for the north’ which persisted for a very long time,” he said. According to him, although some efforts of recent past had been made to change that trend and balance things up, there was still a huge gap.
He, therefore, challenged the students who had had the opportunity to be in school to be conscious of such fact and take full advantage of what was being offered them to liberate themselves.
“Education is the major resource in the north. All other resources, we do not come close, therefore you must make good use of the chances offered you,” he told the students.
He, however, bemoaned the inadequate infrastructural facilities for senior high and technical schools in the north and appealed to the government to provide second cycle institutions with appropriate teaching and learning materials including ICT facilities, well-furnished libraries for staff and students, as well as provide logistics and transport needs for schools in order for them to produce good results.
The Headmaster for the school, Mr Paul Achana, said to effectively compete with other schools in the region and the nation as a whole, the school would need efficient science and ICT laboratories, among other things.
He commended the school’s PTA for renovating two structures for the school for use as a library and ICT centre and the Kassena-Nankana East District Assembly for constructing a three-unit classroom block and an office, store, as well as an assembly hall, for the school.
Mr Achana also acknowledged the role of the government in financing the building of a six-unit classroom block containing a staff common room and a two-storey girl’s dormitory block for the school. These projects, he said, would no doubt enhance teaching and learning in the school.
The Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Mrs Lucy Awuni, said the government would continue with the rehabilitation works on the Science Resource Centres.
She, however, bemoaned the use of mobile phones in the second cycle schools and its attendant break down of discipline in the schools and urged students to desist from it.
“We in the north pay a heavy price if we allow fighting and indiscipline to become endemic in our schools and communities, because it deters investors from the area,” she said.