ACQUIRE HIGHER EDUCATIONAL SKILLS ...Lt-Gen Smith urges students (page 11, nov 16)

THE Minister of Defence, Lt. Gen. (Rtd.) J. H. Smith, has urged Ghanaian students to acquire higher educational skills in order to improve on their performance in their various fields of study.
Speaking at the 82nd speech and prize giving-day ceremony of the Achimota School on the theme, "Education, an investment for the future", the minister observed that education was to enable citizens, especially the youth to acquire the intellectual basis for developing skills to enhance their future.
"With this in mind, it should not be difficult for us to understand that our future depends on education," he noted.
Lt. Gen. Smith said there was the need to inculcate in students the mental discipline that would enable them to make sound decisions and endure long hours of hard work, as well as provide them with social discipline within a community of strict standards.
He, however, advised school authorities to avoid taking extreme measures in their bid to discipline students, since that could make them aggressive disciplinarians, saying they should rather produce submissive scholars who lack initiative in thought rather than rebellious students who think that opposition to authority is fashionable.
The headmistress of the school, Mrs Beatrice Adom, expressed happiness with the school’s academic performance, and announced that it scored 100 per cent in the West Africa Secondary School Examinations (WASSCE) results released just recently.
"Out of the 183 students registered for the examinations, 169 passed excellently in eight subjects, and this had been an improvement in past performances," she said.
She was also happy about the school’s performance in other academic activities, and noted that that it had chalked up high laurels in sports and other areas of interest, including the National Science and Maths quiz in the 2009 competition.
Mrs Adom, however, called on the government to support the school to safeguard its lands, part of which had been encroached upon.
She thus appealed to the government, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) Chief Executive, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and all stakeholders to assist the school to overcome its numerous challenges.
The school currently has a student population of 1,562.