The projects comprise renovated primary and junior high school blocks, a newly constructed sanitary facility and an astro turf playground.

The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Shi Ting Wang, said at the inauguration ceremony on New Year’s Day that the Chinese government, through its embassy in Ghana, had renovated many schools in the country and had had them fitted with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) centres.

He said the projects at the Awisa Methodist Basic School were a demonstration of China’s commitment to assist Ghana in its developmental drive.

He expressed optimism that the completed projects would go a long way to improve sanitation, teaching and learning and sports in the school.

China’s growth

Mr Wang said China was once like Ghana but had become the second largest economy in the world due to the focus the country placed on education.

“The Chinese government attaches great importance to education and mobilises enormous resources for the educational sector,” he said, adding: “This significant factor has brought about tremendous changes to China in recent years.”

He said education was the gateway to development, which was why the Chinese Embassy had been helping the Awisa Methodist School and many other schools in the country.

“We wish to cultivate more assistance programmes and break the bottleneck of shortage of human resource in Ghana,” Mr Wang said.

Ghanaian students in China

He said currently over 6,500 Ghanaian students were studying in China and that was the largest number of students from Africa.

In addition, he said, 914 Ghanaians enjoyed short-term training programmes in China in 2018, saying many more students from Ghana preferred to go to China for further studies or training.

The ambassador recalled that in September 2018 President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo paid a state visit to China and held bilateral talks with the Chinese President, XI Jinping, during which the two leaders reached a consensus and signed eight cooperation agreements.

He said the agreements would further enhance Ghana-China relations and bolster Ghana’s development agenda.

Commendation

The Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, thanked the Chinese Embassy for the projects and urged the teachers and pupils of the school to take good care of the facilities.

He said teachers played a significant role in education and urged them not to perform below standard.