TWENE AMANFO MARKS SILVER JUBILEE (PAGE 40)

THE Twene Amanfo Senior High Technical School (TASTECH) in Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region has celebrated its 25th anniversary and Speech and Prize-giving day in Sunyani, with a call on the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, non-governmental organisations and individuals to mobilise resources to establish scholarship schemes for talented brilliant, needy children.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, who made the call, also urged the various communities to provide incentives to teachers to boost their morale for them to give their best.
The occasion was also used to unveil a bust of Nana Twene Amanfo, after whom the Twene Amanfo Senior High Technical School was named.
Mr Baffour-Awuah further observed that the formation of old boys and girls associations had been a potent source of assistance in the development of schools across the country.
He, therefore, urged old students associations to strengthen their activities for the effective development of their respective alma mater.
The theme for the Silver Jubilee celebration was “Enhancing Technical/Vocational Education for National Development”.
The regional minister noted with satisfaction that as a purely day school sited right in the centre of the Sunyani township, the school had afforded many students whose parents could not have paid high school fees the opportunity to access secondary and technical education.
“I, therefore, urge Nananom, parents, the churches and the various assemblies to continue to explore more fruitful ways of improving the standard of education at TASTECH,” he stressed.
Mr Baffour-Awuah stressed that not too long ago, the nation’s wealth was defined in terms of its natural resources, such as timber, gold and fertile lands, and by that measure the country was considered rich.
He, however, pointed out that “we have moved into an era where the progress of a nation, communities and societies, was no longer measured in terms of the abundance of their natural resources only, but the availability of trained manpower”.
The Administrator of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), Mr Akwasi Mensah Fosuaba Banahene, who was the guest speaker for the ceremony, disclosed that from 2001 to date, the GETFund had on behalf of the government, spent GH¢12,446,644 on the development of 20 technical institutes in the country.
He gave the assurance that the GETFund would support the Ghana Education Service (GES) with adequate financial resources to expand the training scope of all technical schools, adding that those funds would also be made available for the training of teachers and instructors in those institutions.
The Headmistress of TASTECH, Ms Georgina Boakye, disclosed that the school had been able to put up Visual Arts and Building Construction workshops through its own initiative with its meagre resources, to facilitate teaching and learning.
She stated that there had been a tremendous improvement in the academic performance of the institute over the years.
According to her, between 2005 and 2007, the school chalked up resounding successes in the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), recording 100 per cent passes each year with many of the students entering tertiary educational institutions throughout the country.
The Senior Prefect, Master Enoch Osei, catalogued a number of problems confronting the school, such as lack of adequate infrastructure, transport and staff accommodation.
Prizes were awarded to deserving students and staff.