470 teachers graduate from St Francis College, Hohoe

Four hundred and seventy (470) Diploma Basic Teachers who completed their three-year course at the St Francis College have graduated, during the 10th anniversary graduation of the school, at Hohoe in the Volta Region. 

Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, noted that the poor conditions pupils were exposed to such as studying under trees, had taken the joy out of going to school. 

He said going to school was now a life of misery, toil, and a kind of penalty and punitive sentence the society inflict on the child. 

Prof Yankah said: “We have misplaced our priorities as a nation and continent. We have completely devalued education since independence, forgetting the pivotal role education plays in national development, and how we as nations have conspired to undermine the child's right to quality education right from her infancy.” 

Prof Yankah said redefining basic education would include high school education in which the government would seek to resource it by launching a free senior high school effective this September. 

He added that this should ensure that no child was left behind in the quest for higher knowledge by reason of poverty, or the tattered clothes. 

“We cannot emphasize enough the inalienable right of every child to good, holistic education. Gaining access to good education does not only fulfil a child's fundamental right. 

“The child becomes the fundamental medium through whom the seeds of national development are planted, nurtured and brought to fruition, to improve the living conditions of a pupil.” 

Prof Yankah called on the graduands to be a role model for the young ones they would training. 

He added that a good teacher bred a good student “and so does a mischievous teacher, paves way for indiscipline among his students”. 

Mr Raphael Kwadzo Kwashie, the Principal of the College, observed that the school had taken the overall best student in the Volta Zone. 

He therefore encouraged the students to put in their best to win the ultimate prize in the next academic. 

The Principal expressed gratitude to the Students Representative Council for purchasing a new water pump for the school.

He also lauded Madam Helen Adjoa Ntoso, former Regional Minister for initiating the building of a female dormitory valued at GH¢150,000.00 through the Ghana Education Trust Fund. 

Mr Kwashie enumerated some of the teething problems facing the College as encroachment of school land, bad roads and drainage systems and lack of a bus. 

He said the College would celebrate its 110th anniversary and appealed to the past students to organise their homecoming in December 2017. 

The conferment of diplomas was officiated by Professor Frederick Ocansey, Director of the Institute of Education at the University of Cape Coast. 

The graduating students were awarded prizes including a flat screen TV, lap-tops, rice-cookers, and varied amount of cash.

GNA