Philanthropist renovates New Ebu Basic School
A public-spirited individual, Mr Horace Ekow Ewusi, has spent GH¢300,000 to renovate a four-unit classroom block for the New Ebu Catholic Basic School in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese (AAK) District of the Central Region.
Mr Ewusi also donated computers and accessories, desks, mathematical sets, markers, sets of jerseys and exercise books.
The gesture follows an appeal made to him by the New Ebu community to salvage the situation when the blocks were declared a death trap.
At a ceremony to hand over the edifice to the Ghana Education Service which was attended by the community members, Mr Ewusi said “I am grateful to be part of this life changing enterprise”.
He said he decided to support the school because he was mindful of the crucial role education played in the socio-economic development of the nation, and urged students to take advantage of the facility to make gains.
Agriculture as punishment
He used the occasion to advise school authorities against the use of agriculture as punishment for deviant students, an act, he said, served as a disincentive for students taking up agriculture as a mainstay.
Mr Ewusi said there was a vast track of agricultural land in the district which the students could take advantage of if they were well educated in the advantages of agriculture to the country’s economy.
He commended the government’s planting for food and job policy, stressing that the initiative could help in the country’s food security.
Mr Ewusi advocated the introduction of the Operation Feed Your Self policy introduced by General I .K. Acheampong in the 1970s, which he said contributed greatly to the nation’s sustenance.
Equalising factor
The Deputy Central Regional Minister, Mr Thomas Adjei Baffoe, said education was an equalising factor, saying without education, most of the prominent people in the district would not be in their present position.
He, therefore, commended Mr Ewusi for the gesture saying “your support will help us to produce great lawyers, doctors, teachers and farmers among other professionals”.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr Elvis Morris Donkoh, said education helps in producing the nation’s human resource, beneficial to its development and stressed the need for a concerted effort at achieving it.
He said many people in the area had benefitted from scholarships and were studying in some Senior High Schools and appealed to others to avail themselves of that opportunity.
The Chairman of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the school, Mr John Mensah, said the classroom blocks had become death traps and the association was contemplating pulling them down until Mr Ewusi, who is also the 1st Vice Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) came to their rescue.