Posted on Dec 10,2020

First Lady builds library for Sekyere Kumawu District

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First Lady Mrs Rebecca Akufo-Addo has commissioned and handed over a newly constructed library at Kumawu for the Sekyere Kumawu District and the Ghana Library Authority in the Ashanti Region. The facility is to encourage reading among children in the catchment area. In a speech read on behalf of the First Lady at the commissioning, she reiterated the importance of reading as one of the surest ways to acquiring quality education because it exposed children to the immense knowledge contained in books and other reading materials. She said since assuming office in 2017, the NPP administration under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo, had implemented several policies aimed at making education affordable and accessible to all Ghanaian children.
“Government has invested huge resources in implementing policies such as Free SHS, free hot meals, free textbooks, and free uniforms among others, all aimed at ensuring equal access to education, to break the vicious cycle of inequalities”, Mrs Akufo-Addo said. However, she said the laudable policies stood the risk of bearing little fruit if the foundation of reading, was not strengthened. The First Lady said, her Rebecca Foundation, therefore, had through its “Learning to Read, Reading to Learn” Initiative, constructed, resourced and commissioned many libraries in places around the country including Wenchi in the Bono Region, Sefwi Debiso in the Western North Region, Moree in the Central Region, Daffiama Bussie Issah in the Upper West Region, Amansaman in the Greater Accra Region and Kumawu in the Ashanti region. She used the occasion to announce some soon-to-be-completed libraries at Bortianor in the Greater Accra Region and Dambai in the Oti Region, adding that the Rebecca Foundation would, continue to support the government’s effort to make education accessible and attractive to all young people. Mrs Akufo-Addo also urged parents and other stakeholders to encourage their wards to patronise the reading facilities, emphasising that, literacy was how lifelong learning and a child’s ability to learn to the highest levels remained possible. She advised the people to continue to adhere to the COVID-19 safety protocols in all their daily activities, warning that the deadly disease was no respecter of persons and knew no boundaries. Mr Philip Basoah, Member of Parliament for Kumawu, thanked the First Lady for her support and congratulated her on her immense contribution in empowering the youth through education

Posted Nov 20, 2020

Dr. Philip Bannor urges Ghanaians to check their health status

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The Acting Registrar General for Health Facilities Regulatory Agency, Dr Philip Yaw Bannor has called on Ghanaians not to hesitate in finding out the status of their health before the eleventh hour. He hinted that, some Ghanaians do not exhibit any enthusiasm towards undergoing various screening and needed diagnostic testing to determine their health conditions with the fear that the outcome might not be favourable. He stated that, living with this kind of perception is not prudent to our health as such hesitations could pose more treat to the individual. He further explained that some diseases are best threated if diagnosed early. He also made a clarion call on Ghanaians to desist from the consumption of more fatty foods and meat as these are major causative agents of hypertension and other vascular diseases. He made the call when he teamed up with Saving Life International, a non-governmental organization in Ghana to organize a free health screening for thousands of residence at Oyoko, a community in the Sekyere Kumawu District of Ashanti Region

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Posted Nov 2, 2020

MOFA/JICA organizes field trip for four MMDAs

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The Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are jointly implementing Phase II of the Sustainable Development of Rain-Fed Lowland Rice Production Project (TENSUI 2) in Ashanti and Northern Regions. Some twenty (20) Districts in the Ashanti Region and fifteen (15) in the Northern Region have been selected to benefit from this technical assistance programme. The overall goal of the project is to increase domestic rice production. The beneficiary districts have been grouped into cycles for effective implementation of the project. As part of the project implementation for 2019, a sensitization field trip was organized for the 4th batch of the districts called Cycle 4 districts to join the project in Ashanti Region. The Cycle 4 MDAs are Bosome Freho, Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipal and Atwima Nwabiagya North. The MMDCEs with their respective Coordinating Directors, Agric Directors and Crops Officers, and Ashanti Regional Agricultural Development Unit took part in the field trip. The objectives of this sensitization trip were to give participants the opportunity to observe the improved rice cultivation technology and to also help decision makers to understand the importance of allocating budget and releasing funds on time for the agricultural sector especially for demo plot establishment. Currently, a sensitization field has been established at Dadease, a community in the Sekyere Kumawu district to serve as a case study to farmers that aspire to jump into the rice cultivation. At the event the DCE for the area Samuel Addai Agyeikum also appealed to the government to support farmers in the district with requisite farming machinery so that they could go extra mile. He explained that, so far 100acres of rice plantation had be cultivated by farmers in the area therefore processing machines would be needed to help sustain rice production in the district.

Posted October 15, 2020

Kumawu GES launches reading campaign programme

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Mr. Paul Antwi Oppong, the District Education Director, speaking at the launch of the programme dubbed "Reading Explosion", an initiative solely funded by the Directorate, said the focus is to sustain the interest of children in reading, which would, in turn, improve their academic performances. It would cover pupils in Primary three to the final year of the Junior High Schools (JHS), including the private basic schools in the District. Mr. Oppong said the innovation comes as a sequel to augment a five-year reading project implemented by the USAID and another partner, for pupils in KG2 to Primary 2 in all public schools in the District, which ends this year. He said the success of the USAID reading project, which had registered tremendous impacts on the target school children, had informed the decision for its extension by the Directorate. ˜We found great success in the reading skills and learning abilities of the pupils at the KG2 to Primary 2 level, as a result of the USAID learning programme, which will be ending this year in the District. We, therefore, found it necessary to extend and expand the impact to all the pupils at the basic school level to help facilitate and enhance reading and learning in schools ", he noted. Rolling out the programme activities, Mr. Oppong said the target pupils would attend early morning reading classes, two reading periods on the school's daily time table, extra classes on Saturday and Sundays, and vacation classes, among others. He mentioned areas of concentration for the programme in empowering the reading skills and abilities of the children as poetry, songs, rhymes, stories, newscasting, and others. Already two primary school teachers and one JHS teacher from each school in the District, have been taken through a trainer of trainers workshop, received training on the fundamentals of coaching the pupils to read within the shortest possible time. Reverend Father Afrifa Yamoah, the Catholic Parish of Kumawu and the Local Manager of the Roman Catholic Schools in the District commended the Directorate for the initiative and called on parents to support the teachers in ensuring the success and sustainability of the initiative. He also called on stakeholders to support the Directorate with the necessary resources in order to smoothly run the programme in the district. The District ranked 43rd in Basic School Certificate Examination (BECE) nationwide league with 64.74% in 2016, it grabbed the 18th position with 75% in 2017 and came 7th with 91.08% in 2018. It has 41 public primary schools, 38 public JHS, and 27 private basic schools within five educational circuits - Kumawu, Bodomase, Besoro, Dadease, and Banko, and the target is to attain 100% in the BECE performance this year.

Posted Sept 26, 2020

KUMAWU: 1D1F- Machine Spare Parts, Equipment Manufacturing Centres Being Built In Ghana

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A Technology Solution Centre (TSC) in Kumawu, in the Ashanti Region, which will support Government’s industrialization agenda, particularly the 1-District-1-Factory initiative is near completion. The Centre, run by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, is a metal-based, light engineering (machining and fabrication) workshop with offices, classrooms, show rooms and conference facilities, and will, amongst others, produce spare parts and repair services for factories in the various districts of the country. 30 of such centres are being established in the country. Five (5) new and larger TSCs are at various stages of completion in Kumawu, Elmina, Hohoe, Dormaa and Savelugu. 21 existing Rural Technological Facilities (RTFs) are also being renovated, retooled and upgraded into TSCs. 4 RTFs in Awutu Senya, Somanya, Gwollu and Suhum have also been adopted and is being renovated, retooled and transformed into TSCs. The Kumawu TSC, will provide equipment, machines that will, in turn, can produce agro-processing equipment, bolts and nuts to support the factories that are being established under the 1-District-1-Factory initiative.”. The President is expected to be commissioning them this year after the COVID-19 Pandemic you are going to commission a lot of the TSCs. With the country now possessing the capability of making its own industrial machines, this move is critical to the industrialization of our country. The equipment and machines installed on the workshop floors of the new TSCs include AC/DC Electric Arc welding set, Electric Arc Mobile welding set, heavy duty hydraulic press, metal sheet power operated rolling machine, profile bending machine, box and pan powered folding machine, metal sheet hydraulic swing-beam shears, spot welding set, oxy-acetylene gas welding set, amongst others. On the machining floor of the new TSCs, the following equipment have been installed and some being installed: centre lathe, shaping machine, universal milling machine, radial arm pillar drilling machine, and a bench drilling machine.

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