Support teachers to instil discipline in students; Vice-President urges old students

The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has asked old students of schools to support teachers to instil discipline, integrity, hard work and accountability in students to make them better citizens to contribute effectively to national development.

He said the youth of today were not only confronted with many challenges such as alcoholism, drug abuse and teenage pregnancies but were also influenced by television and social media.

Dr Bawumia said the temptations the youth faced today required the support and assistance of the old students to mentor them into responsible adulthood.

The Vice-President said many adults had relinquished their responsibilities as parental gate-keepers, putting the burden of good character moulding on the shoulders of teachers and schools.

Anniversary

The Vice-President was speaking at the 70th anniversary celebration and 50th Speech and Prize-giving Day of the Labone Senior High School in Accra last Saturday, on the theme: “Reliving, reconnecting and impacting our educational experience today”.

The Naval Cadet Corps of the school, backed by its mass band, treated patrons to a beautiful display of military drills.

After inspecting a Guard of Honour mounted by the cadet corps, the Vice-President and other dignitaries were ushered onto the grounds by a group of students who performed the traditional ‘Adowa’ dance.

Technology

The Vice-President said Ghana and the rest of Africa missed out on the first three industrial revolutions in the world and could not, therefore, derive maximum benefits from them.

It was to avert such a phenomenon, he said, that the government had embarked on an ambitious drive to digitise all sectors of the national economy to cut down cost, derive efficiency and effectiveness, as well as check corruption and time wasting.

Dr Bawumia mentioned the issuance of national identity cards, the digital address system, digitisation of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), digitisation of Land Registry, mobile money interoperability, among others, as some of the measures geared towards an effective and efficient governance system.

He said with the digital address system, coupled with the national emergency numbers of 112, the police, Fire Service or National Ambulance Service could easily be reached by any distressed caller.

The Vice-President said that was possible because those state agencies would be able to locate the exact places such distress calls were coming from through the use of the digital address system.

He added that with the National Identification card, every Ghanaian would be given a unique identifier to be used for both national planning and synchronisation with other data.

The Vice-President made a cash donation of GH¢20,000 to the school and said in commemoration of the 70th anniversary, the government would donate a bus to the school and also ensure that ongoing work on a teachers’ bungalow, which was 80 per cent complete, was duly finished and handed over.

Training

The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State, who is also the Chairman of the National House of Chiefs, Togbe Afede XIV, expressed appreciation to the management and staff of the school, his alma mater, for the training and education he received, which he said had guided him to become who he was today.

He urged the school to continue to train students to become critical thinkers and problem solvers through holistic education.

Togbe Afede also called for the setting up of an endowment fund to support the school in its activities, while entreating the school to establish closer links with its past students.