The Rector of the Pentecost University, The Reverend Dr Peter Ohene Kyei, has advocated making integrity the criterion for electing public office holders in the country.
"People of integrity must be the object of our educational system," he stated in a speech at the 57th Founder's Day Speech and Prize giving Day of Apam Senior High School at Apam.
The Day was on the theme, "Building High Academic Standards with Integrity for National Development". The Rev Dr Kyei noted with concern that academic qualification and personal integrity had been divorced from each other.
"From our politics to our police, from the Judiciary to the civil service, from clearing goods at our ports to buying land, one has either to bribe one's way through or experience undue frustration and delays," he said, and recited a biblical quotation which says "righteousness exalts a nation but sin is a reproach to every people".
The Rector said people must not only be of integrity but must also have the capacity to discharge their functions.
He said the nation needed people who in addition to working hard at excelling, would use their knowledge and training to advance the cause of others around them and the nation as a whole.
"When hospital workers steal drugs, when politicians steal money meant to develop their constituencies and when public servants take bribes to certify shoddy road work, they are saying we neither care for ourselves nor for other people around us.
"This is because when by their actions the nation is run down, it affects them as well as other members of the society," he said.
The Rev Dr Kyei, an 'old boy' of the school, urged the students not to settle on mediocrity but to aim at excellence, and urged them to move with dreamers but not dream killers who might distract them from their goals.
The Headmaster, Mr Archibald Kobena Fuah, gave a catalogue of challenges facing the school, which include the construction of additional
classrooms, assembly hall, the provision of a sick bay stocked with drugs, additional computers, an arts studio, tables and chairs for teachers, a set of uniforms for the school's Cadet Corp and supporting equipment.
He commended the Old Students Association and the Parent-Teacher Association for their immense contributions to the development of the
school.
The Old Students Association donated 10 tables and 10 chairs for the teachers, one mower, one television set and a cash of GH¢1,000 to the
school.
Obrifo Ahunaku Ahor Ankobea II, Omanhen of Gomoa Akyempim, commended the Headmaster and the Staff for bringing the school back to its past glory and pledged the support of the Chiefs to the development of the school.