Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration has donated educational materials to five schools in Yendi, Northern Region.
The donation forms part of its “Back To School Campaign” which is a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative.
The items include but are not limited to the following: different categories of books; dictionaries; packets of pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, markers and highlighters; board markers; mathematical sets; calculators; school bags; school uniforms; pockets of sanitary pads and sports kits. In addition to these items, the Ministry will donate undisclosed sums of money to each of the five selected schools to enable them take care of their minor expenditures.
The five beneficiary schools are: the Dagbon State Secondary Technical School, Abartey Junior High School, the Roman Catholic Primary School, the Yendi Jubilee Complex, and Yendi Primary Block B.
Speaking at the donation ceremony on Wednesday, January 15, 2020, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Mohammed Habibu Tijani, said the schools were carefully chosen to reflect the culture, history, diversity and dynamism of educational institutions in Yendi and the role they have played and continue to play in the development of our human resource.
He stated that 2nd Edition of the Ministry’s Back-to-School Campaign is taking place on the back of a successful 1st edition which was launched by Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey, the Foreign Minister, on 5th February, 2018.
He stated that the Campaign was initiated by the Minister as part of the Ministry’s corporate social responsibility and, essentially, seeks to demonstrate the determination of the Ministry to give practical meaning to Ghana’s people-centered foreign policy.
According to him, the objective of the Campaign, therefore, is to complement Government’s resolve at ensuring that all Ghanaians of school-going age access high quality education.
The Deputy Minister added that “It is in tandem with Government’s policy of providing free primary and secondary education to the Ghanaian youth.”
“At the global level, all of this is expected to lead to Ghana’s attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal four (4) on quality education, which has been mainstreamed into Government’s education policy,” he said.
“The theme for this edition: “Transforming Ghana; Equipping the Youth”, is therefore instructive. The Ministry shares in the belief that the youth of Ghana are critical to the Transformation Agenda being pursued by Government,” he stressed.
He noted that Ministry also believes that the best way to empower the youth to play that critical role is to support their educational development.
He revealed that in choosing to intervene in the education sector, the Ministry does not in any way seek to assume the role of state agencies appropriately mandated by law to oversee the sector.
On the contrary, he observed, “ours is a complementary role, focused on communities that require additional support to what central Government is already providing; and that is partly the reason the Ministry has chosen to come to Yendi.”
In a statement read on his behalf, the King of Dagbon, Yaa-Naa Abubakar II, commended the Foreign Affairs Ministry for the kind gesture.
According to him, “this programme will support the government’s effort at providing quality education to the youth, especially the most disadvantaged ones far away from the national capital.”
He emphasized that “education is the bedrock of any prosperous nation and that starts with a good foundation for the future torch bearers – the children.”
He therefore encouraged the pupils who benefitted from the donation to take their studies seriously.
BY Melvin Tarlue