Foreign Ministry donates to schools in Yendi

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has, under its "Back to School Campaign", donated educational materials worth over GH¢120,000 to selected deprived schools in the Yendi municipality in the Northern Region.

The items included assorted textbooks, dictionaries, mathematical sets, calculators, school bags, stationery, school uniforms, sanitary pads, sports kits and an undisclosed amount of money for each of the beneficiary schools.

The beneficiary schools are the Dagbon State Senior High Technical School, the Abatey Junior High School, the Roman Catholic Primary School, the Yendi Jubilee Complex and the Yendi Primary Block B.

CSR

The donation of the educational materials is the second under the ministry’s "Back to School Campaign", the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative the ministry has adopted.

The objective of the campaign is to complement the government's resolve to ensure that all Ghanaians of school age access high quality education.

It forms part of efforts to attain the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Four on quality education, which has been mainstreamed into the government's educational policy of ensuring inclusive and quality education in Ghana.

At a ceremony held in Yendi last Wednesday, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mr Mohammed Habibu Tijani, said the "Back to School Campaign" was launched by the ministry on February 5, 2018 on the theme: "Foreign policy mirrors domestic policy.”

He said even though the items donated by the ministry could not solve all the problems of the beneficiary schools, they would serve as the ministry’s modest contribution towards meeting some of the basic needs of the schools.

He explained that the beneficiary schools were carefully selected to reflect the culture, history, diversity and dynamism of educational institutions in Yendi and the role they had played and continued to play in the development of the human resource.

Commendation

The Overlord of Dagbon, Yaa-Naa Abukari II, in an address read on his behalf by Shahadu Kamal-deen, the Guntingli-Naa, commended the sector Minister, Ms Shirley

Ayorkor Botchwey, and her two deputies, Messrs Tijani and Charles Owiredu, for supporting the government's effort to provide quality education for the youth, especially the disadvantaged.

He stressed the importance of education to the individual, the community and the nation and urged pupils and students of the beneficiary schools to take their studies seriously.

The Headmaster of the Dagbon State Senior High Technical School, Mr Alhassan Adam Mubarak, on behalf of the beneficiary schools, thanked the ministry for the items and said the donation would go a long way to boost academic work among the students.