Naba Sigri Bewong, Paramount Chief of the Sekoti traditional area, has noted that the challenges of education, especially that of children in the country, must not be left alone for government to solve.
He said education was an important tool for the development of any nation, so efforts should be made by all, to address the numerous problems that confronted it, to stop the high rate of school drop outs.
Naba Bewong was speaking at this year’s annual “Tenglebre” Festival of the people of the Sekoti traditional area, on the theme “Education, the Bedrock for National Development; Nabdams send your children to school”.
The chief called on government to connect electricity to all basic schools in the area to promote effective teaching of Information and communication Technology (ICT), because it was vital for acquiring knowledge in these modern times.
Naba Bewong said children as young as eight years were engaged in “galamsey”, mining for gold, when they should be in the classroom whilst others serve at bars as attendants and also as domestic servants in towns.
He said the loitering of young children, especially girls, results in high rate of teenage pregnancies and school drop outs in the area.
He said the only Senior Secondary school in the district lacked boarding facilities and also a generator for electricity, making the movement of students at night very difficult.
“These were some of the issues that gave impetuous to the unrest in the school sometime back, and the provision of some of the needed infrastructure will go a long way to avoid such agitations”.
The Chief thanked government for the development projects in the area, especially, the connection of some parts of the area to the National electricity Grid.
He appealed to government, to rehabilitate the dams in the area, to boost agricultural activities as well as
the construction of a road, to link Binaba, in the Bawku West District.
Mr Mark Woyongo, Upper East Regional Minister assured the people that government would not renege on its pledge to improve the educational sector.
He said the future generation “would not forgive us if we do not provide them with good education”, adding that, “they are undoubtedly the future leaders and workforce of the nation in our various communities.
Mr Woyongo said government, this year, would accelerate the modernization of agriculture, to promote food security, and that the Northern Rural Growth Programme (NRGP), the continuation of the Block farming programme, the Youth in Agriculture and the fertilizer subsidy programme were some of the areas that it would focus on.