Programme to rekindle education at Dodorkope underway
A year-long programme to rekindle interest in formal education at Dodorkope, a village seven kilometres off Agbozume on the Accra-Aflao trunk road, is underway.
Advertisement
The programme is the brain-child of Mr Philip Mensah, Headmaster of the Municipal Assembly (MA) Basic School Complex, the only school in the community.
Dubbed: “Education-Key to Civilisation and Development,” the programme is being organised under the auspices of the traditional authorities, the school’s management board, parent-teachers association (PTA), as well as the old students association.
Attitude of parents
At its launch at Dodorkope, Mr Mensah said the half-hearted attitude of parents towards their children's education in the community pushed him to initiate the idea.
“Fifty-two years after the founding of the school, I find parents’ interest in the education of their children irresolute, hence the idea to revamp that interest,” he told the Ghana News Agency (GNA).
Mr Mensah, who has been at post for barely a year, said a diligent study of the history of the school indicated that it was an esteemed institution, with children from surrounding settlements trekking to school there, but somehow its fortunes waned and enrolment dipped.
He said he believed after the programme, planned to be hyped in the cities and big towns where many indigenes lived, attitude of parents towards their children’s education would become “programmed rather than mechanical.”
Mr Mensah said only four out of 13 candidates presented at the Basic Certificate Education Examination (BECE) in 2013 passed.
According to him, the school has benefited from an European Union supported three-unit classroom block, as well as a government sponsored six-unit classroom block with office, store, a laboratory and a water project.
He said the programme also sought to mobilise funding and sponsorship to fence the school and provide it with computers, a canteen, cultural kits, brass band and sports equipment, among others.
Mr Kofi Yevutse, the Founder Member of the Dodorkope MA School Complex, and a volunteer pupil- teacher, was decorated during the function for his pioneering role.
Sponsorship
Mr John Tumaku, a lecturer in Entrepreneurial Skills at the General and Liberal Studies Department of the Ho Polytechnic, and an old student, pledged to organise a group to sponsor the education of two best performing pupils at the 2014 BECE at the senior high school level.
He expressed worry about the attitude of parents towards their children’s education and indiscipline among pupils and the youth in general.
The assembly member of Dodorkope Electoral Area, Mr Albert Wedzi, said he wondered why parents in the 1,700-member community would not strive to keep their children in school, though the Dodorkope school was benefiting from the School Feeding Programme.
Mr Charles Agbagedi, a retired educationalist and a guest of honour, observed that total education was a process that would not denigrate culture but rather transform it.
He said an educated person, besides being literate, must exercise decorum at all times.
The Focal Person for Special Education at the Ho Municipal Directorate of Education, Mr Michael Tsikudo, in a speech on “Inclusive Education”, said it was an offence for school authorities to refuse to enrol any prospective pupil on account of his or her disability.
The programme would be climaxed with a grand durbar on Saturday, November 8, this year.
GNA