SAAKROM TEACHERS BUNGALOW INAUGURATED (PAGE 40)

AS part of efforts to entice teachers to accept posting to the Atwima Mponua District in the Ashanti Region, the district assembly has put up and inaugurated a teachers bungalow costing GH¢52,000 at Saakrom, a farming community in the district.
The project which was financed from the assembly’s share of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund, would accommodate four families.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Deputy Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Osei-Assibey Antwi, said the government was committed to improving the well-being of teachers, especially those working in the rural areas so that they would give their best for the benefit of the nation.
He said the various incentive packages introduced by the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government were “a testimony of this commitment”.
Mr Antwi noted with regret, the accommodation and other problems facing teachers in many rural areas, and stressed that every effort would be made to address them.
He stated that the current government had provided more school infrastructure than any other government in the country.
Mr Antwi further said 136 pupil teachers in the district had benefited from the untrained teacher diploma programme.
He urged the people to take interest in the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) because it was the surest way of addressing health financing in the country.
Mr Antwi said the cocoa industry was being given all the necessary attention that was why annual production had consistently gone up since the NPP government assumed office.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Wilberforce Owusu-Ansah, stated that education continued to take the biggest part of the district’s annual budget because “we know the importance of education in our development strides”.
He urged parents to take interest in the education of their children so that the various laudable programmes introduced by the government would achieve the desired results.
Mr Owusu-Ansah cited the development recorded in various sectors of the district’s history saying, “This has justified the creation of the district about four years ago”.
The DCE noted for instance that currently, there was no single community in the district that did not have a borehole.
He added that since the current government came to power, 27 communities had been connected to the national electricity grid while 37 others were waiting to be connected soon.
Mr Owusu-Ansah also discounted claims by certain people that there was no money in the pockets of the people.