The Deputy Minister of Education, Dr. Samuel Joseph Annan, on Saturday, observed that education without respect for one another, discipline, loyalty and patriotism was meaningless.
He said the Ghanaian education system is facing some challenges, such as quality teaching and learning, indiscipline, increasing population and inadequate infrastructure, among others.
The Deputy Minister made the observation at Adisadel College's (Adisco) 100th Speech and Prize- Giving and Founder's Day Celebration in Cape Coast, under the theme, "projecting the Adisadel spirit into the next century".
He called on Senior High Schools (SHS) in the country to give priority attention to technical and vocational training.
He said training students in these fields will make them innovative and bring out their talents, saying, it will help Ghana to achieve its goal of being a middle income country.
Dr. Annan said to compliment government's efforts in attaining the Millennium Development Goals, (MDGs) students should be self-motivated and be willing to sacrifice their time to study hard to be successful in life.
The guest speaker for the occasion, Dr. Ave Kludze Junior, a Rocket Scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States and an old boy, urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to
incorporate modern technology into its curriculum and emphasis should be
placed on science, mathematics and technology.
He said he will soon establish the Virtual National Science Technology pre- Engineering and Mathematics Centre (STEM), which according to him, would link Adisco to the world, by creating and leveraging advanced scientific and mathematics studies for students of the school.
Dr. Kludze said without education, the future of a nation is bleak and the people would wallow in ignorance and advised students to be curious and learn more so as to become great achievers to assist in nation building.
Touching on the new four-year SHS duration system, he said that it is not the length of education one receives that matters but rather the quality and standard of education as well as the commitment of the individual.
The Headmaster of Adisco, Mr Herbert Graham disclosed that Adisadel College is the only school in Ghana which has enough classrooms to serve the fourth year SHS students.
He said this was made possible by the GETFUND, which constructed a 16- unit classroom block for the school and also asked for more infrastructures in order to create more room to admit more students.
He also disclosed that aside a four-storey eight-unit block of flats being constructed for the staff; the GETFUND is also constructing the
Centenary Resource Centre near the Accra-Takoradi highway, which will have a 3,000- capacity assembly hall, a library and an ICT centre.
Mr Graham said the school, which was established on January 4, 1910 with 29 boys currently has a total of 1,447 boys (all boarders)in line with the government's policy of making education accessible to all children.
He said the school has over the years produced men with outstanding qualities serving in the field of education, politics, religion, medicine, law and business in Ghana, Africa and the world at large.
The Assistant Headmaster in charge of academics, Mr Joseph Opare presented prizes to deserving students, teaching and non- teaching staff.