The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of the Atomic Hills Estate Demonstration School at the Ashongman Estates in Accra, on Monday inaugurated a new computer laboratory with 15 computers and accessories.
The equipment donated by members of the PTA and valued at about 5,250 Ghana Cedis were to facilitate the teaching and learning of Information Communication Technology (ICT).
Mr. Samuel Agyekum Bamfo, Headmaster of the Junior High School section, said the donation was just the beginning of efforts aimed at boosting
government's effort to ensure free and quality education for all children.
He thanked the PTA for its contribution to the development of the school.
Mr. Bamfo said with the huge number of a single class of about 70 pupils, the 15 computers was woefully inadequate to ensure effective
teaching and learning of ICT in the school.
He appealed to the government to complement the efforts of the PTA in the provision of utilities, supporting teachers with various motivational packages and in the expansion of the school's infrastructure.
Mr. Bamfo said despite the immense efforts by the PTA to improve the situation of the school, it had received nothing from the District Education Office, leading to numerous setbacks in the infrastructural development of the school.
He said despite the challenges, the School had since 2006 chalked tremendous successes in its Basic Education Certificate of Examination, by obtaining a 100 percent each year.
Mr. Bamfo expressed hope that the laboratory would trigger support from government to beef-up the PTA's effort to ensure quality education.
Mrs. Cynthia Bosomtwe-Sam, Municipal Director of Education, commended the PTA for the efforts, saying, "ICT has become the bedrock of the current society and its literacy has become a must for every worker".
She noted that ICT would provide the pupils the opportunity to look for quality information on the internet to boost their academic performances and to help them compete favorable with other children in the world.
Mrs. Bosomtwe-Sam called on teachers to make the teaching of ICT more practical and interesting for the pupils to be able to seek more information to enhance their academic work.
She mentioned the free fee policy, the Capitation Grant and School Feeding Programme as some of the interventions by the government to ensure quality education in the country.
Mrs. Bosomtwe-Sam explained that the decision by the Ministry of Education to discourage levies imposed by school authorities on parents was due to various abuses that left the child as a victim to defaults by their
parents.
She, however, said parents could donate to support their children's education since government could not do that alone.