The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho-Central Captain (rtd) George Nfodjoh, has disclosed that, the MPs Common Fund which is meant to support projects in the constituencies, is not a preserve of public institutions.
He noted there are private institutions which are serving the public interest that deserve to be supported with these grants.
Captain Nfodjoh was speaking at a durbar to climax the fifth Anniversary of the Wallahs Academy Senior High School, in Ho on the theme: “Five Years of Quality Education: Successes, Challenges and the Way Forward.”
He said students in private schools with the requisite needs and qualifications also deserve support from the funds.
The school which was born out of Wallahs academy remedial school, started five years ago in hired classrooms with nine students and seven teachers had grown into a regular SHS with 335 students, 27 teachers and 19 non-teaching staff.
Captain Nfodjoh said many private institutions, such as Wallahs Academy, are venturing into molding the future of the youth and need to be support.
He pledged to give the Academy 50 dual desks, besides the computers and sports equipment he had presented to the school.
Mr Maxwell Worlanyo Affram, Rector of the Academy, said growth, which had been steady but difficult, was worth the effort, as the school had been able to absorb many young people, who were turned away from public schools, for lack of space.
He said in the coming years the school would keep to its motto of “Producing excellent students, leading to a higher caliber of human resource base for the country,” by offering special innovative programmes to open opportunities to many people.
Mr Affram said the school, which offers courses in General and Visual arts, Business and Home Economics, had 100 per cent pass in 2010 and 2011 West African School Certificate Examinations and has currently introduced courses in General Science.
He said the Academy is performing well in the areas of sports, culture and discipline and that, students and teachers who compromised the disciplinary code of the school were promptly punished.
Mr Affram said the school management had dismissed 10 students, withdrew 12 from the boarding system for indiscipline, and also laid off four teachers “for various degrees of moral standards that can best be described as unwholesome”.
He said the Academy is expanding, building dormitories, and additional classroom blocks and housekeepers’ bungalows.
Mr Affram said the school however suffers frequent water shortages because of its location on high grounds and needs support to tackle the problem and support to equip its libraries and science laboratories.
Mr Emmanuel Keteku, Municipal Director of Education, who presided over the function, in a comment on the theme, said quality education should be a watchword, as “low education is tantamount to no education”.
Awards were presented to deserving students and teachers while the old students association presented a table top refrigerator to the school to be used at the Staff Common Room.
