We want peaceful elections: Schoolchildren appeal to politicians
Schoolchildren have appealed to all Ghanaians, especially politicians, to ensure that the up-coming general election is peaceful, free and fair.
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"Ghana is the only place we have and as children we are the most vulnerable in times of conflict, so the peace we are enjoying now should be maintained forever," they said.
The children made the appeal in a message at this year’s President's Independence Day Awards ceremony held at the State House in Accra.
The message from the schoolchildren were read in three Ghanaian languages: Twi, Ewe, Dagbani and in English.
Wilhelmina Ibrahim and Linda Amartey of the Calvary ‘1’ Methodist JHS, Adabraka read the message in Ga, while Victor Komladze of the Amugi Avenue JHS, Adabraka and Magaret Azumah of the Ring Road East ‘1’ JHS, Kanda, read in Ewe.
Maria Swallah of the Institute of Islamic Studies and Amantana Illiasu of the University of Ghana Staff JHS, read in Gonja while Grace Antwi and Esther Winifred Fofo Baah of the Calvary ‘2’ Methodist JHS, Adabraka read the message in Twi.
The English language version of the message was read by Pascaline Asante and Ruben Boamah of the All Saints Anglican JHS, Adabraka.
Twenty senior high school (SHS) students from the 10 regions who excelled in the 2015 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and other co-curricular activities were rewarded.
Each awardee received a certificate jointly signed by the President, Mr John Mahama, and the Minister of Education, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang; a scholarship to cover boarding and lodging, cash of GH¢700, a gold-plated medal, a special book prize, a Samsung tablet and one year’s subscription of Nestle products.
The children expressed their appreciation to the President for dealing with the power crisis the country faced recently, as well as the construction of the Community Day SHSs to enable more children to have access to second cycle education.
“We also want to show commitment to our studies, respect for authority and be disciplined in all that we do,” they assured.
Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, who presented the awards to the students, said government believed that investing in quality education and skills training was the best legacy to empower the youth with to enable them to contribute to the development and transformation of the country.
“In pursuit of our transformational agenda, our government has introduced a number of interventions to improve education delivery and that include infrastructure developments at all levels, elimination of schools under trees, the construction of multi floor school buildings and the abolishment of the shift system in highly populated areas,” he noted.
Mr Amissah-Arthur said government had also introduced social interventions such as free uniforms, sandals and meals to deprived communities to sustain and increase enrolment in schools as well as reduce the dropout rates.
He said 55,000 girls in 75 deprived districts had benefitted from scholarships under the girls participatory approach to students success, while 800 girls who were commuting to school from distant places had been provided with bicycles.
Mr Amissah-Arthur said 50 senior high schools had been selected for expansion while 125 others were benefitting from facility and quality improvement.
In the first phase of the progressively free secondary high school education, he said the government absorbed GH¢12.2 million, which covered 320,000 SHS day students, and expressed the hope to increase the amount and extend the benefit to reach more students.
For her part, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said so far 400 students had befitted from the awards since it was instituted in 1993.
She said some of the beneficiaries had distinguished themselves in various fields such as education, the arts, medicine, law and business.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang commended the winners and asked them to live up to expectation and serve as role models to their juniors.
She expressed her appreciation to all the sponsors, especially Nestle Ghana Limited which has supported the programme over the years.