¢1.5b Scholarship For 400 Needy Students

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Tuesday, 22 August 2006 (Page 16)

The Areeba Educational Scholarship Pro-gramme has pre-sented ¢1.5 billion scholarships to 404 needy but brilliant students for the 2006/2007 academic year to enable them to pursue their education successfully.

Hundreds of the beneficiaries, were selected from the country’s tertiary, senior and junior secondary schools after a screening process by the scholarship secretariat in Accra.

A total of 170 people have successfully benefited from the scholarship programme which was instituted six years ago with about ¢183 million which covered 182 beneficiaries.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony in Accra at the weekend, the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service, Ms. Lydia Osei, said government is taking measures to bridge the gap between rural and urban schools by putting up decent infrastructure and creating the same congenial atmosphere for effective teaching and learning.

She observed that the infrastructure situation in schools, especially in the rural areas, discourage teachers from accepting postings to these places noting that providing good infrastructure would motivate teachers to be at post in such areas.

She appealed to the company and other stakeholders to comple-ment government’s effort at improving educational infrastructure in the rural areas.

Ms. Osei urged the recipients to study hard to reciprocate the investment in them saying, "You have to work very hard to realize your aim".

She warned the beneficiaries that the scholarship would depend on their academic performance, conduct and social responsibilities.

She commended Areeba for the initiative to support brilliant but needy students to pursue their education successfully.

The scholarship supervisor, Mrs. Betty Andah, said the scholarship programme forms part of the company’s programme to assist brilliant but needy students in the country.

Mrs. Andah said the company in its quest to help raise the standard of education in the country has constructed a six classroom block for Odorkrom near Akosombo in the Asuogyaman District and a vocation/technical school for the people of Damango in the Northern Region.