New-Ayoma DA/Catholic JHS gets new building

A GH¢67,700 school building for the District Assembly/Catholic Junior High School at New-Ayoma in the Jasikan District in the Volta Region has been inaugurated.
The new building was sponsored by a German philanthropist, Mr Bernard Lange, and his family of Stuttgart to replace an old building constructed in 1941 and had become a death trap due to cracking walls and perforated roofs.

The Catholic Bishop of the Jasikan Diocese, Most Reverend Gabriel Akwasi Ababio Mantey, who administered funds for the implementation of the project, said the inauguration of the school should result in an increased enrolment in the community.

He urged pupils to use the new building to their best advantage and as a launching pad for achieving academic excellence.

The Jasikan District Director of Education, Mr Matthew D. Gbaarah, said the new building must serve as a motivating factor for parents, teachers and pupils to change their attitude towards the delivery of good education in the district.

He expressed disgust that as many as 12 schools scored zero per cent in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the previous year and attributed some of the causes to a situation where many teachers lived outside the communities and commuted daily to school.

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Buem, Mr Daniel Kwesi Ashaimah, thanked the philanthropist for the gesture and asked pupils to utilise the facility to gain “freedom in education”, which he said was guaranteed by learning to propel them into the job market.

He advised teachers to accept postings to rural areas because it was easier for them to gain recognition from local communities.

The chief of New Ayoma, Nana Akoto IV, commended the Bishop of Jasikan by recalling deliberations with him 16 years ago towards the establishment of a vocational/technical school in the town.

By Tim Dzamboe/Daily Graphic/Ghana