Dzodze Climax 2014 ‘Deza’ Celebrations

Torgbui Dey III and Mama Agbaledzokpui of Dzodze Apetepe

The Chiefs and People of Dzodze Traditional area in the Ketu-North district of the Volta region have climaxed their 13^th annual ‘Deza’ (Oil Palm Festival) over the weekend, with a call on young people in the area to venture into cultivation and production of oil palm instead of engaging in risky unsustainable and illegal economic activities.

The Ketu North district is one of the districts in the Volta region that records worrying levels of fuel smuggling due to their proximity to the to the Republic of Togo.

But according to the Volta Regional Minister Helen Adwoa Ntoso, the potentials in the oil palm industry are enormous and lucrative, which can lead to economic security.

 She said aside the domestic consumption of oil palm, its extensive use as a vital raw material for industrial production of products such as cosmetics, soaps, bio-diesel fuel, among others, makes its cultivation a very lucrative venture, which can turn the fortunes of many young people.

She proposed as a way of motivating the youth, the institution of an award scheme to reward the best oil palm farmer, saying ‘it is when our people are engage in this kind of economic activities, that little by little our economy will grow into a robust one.’

The minister also commended the efforts of all farmers and assured them of government continuous support through various agriculture intervention programmes to make farming worthwhile.

Stop Petty trading during School hours

The deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa has admonished teachers, who engage in side businesses during school hours to desist from such practices.

He expressed worry over how a good number of teachers in schools were engaging in the sales of rechargeable cards, selling of pastries in schools, driving taxis among others, to the detriment of their pupils.

A situation he likened to the proverbial biblical case of serving two masters and cautioned that, “as Christ told us long ago, you can’t serve two masters... You either sell credit cards or be a teacher, you can’t do the two”.

The deputy minister, who was commissioning an ultra-modern office complex for the Ketu North district Education directorate at Dzodze in the Volta region on Friday, said such bad practices coupled with other “serious management issues” were the cause of the fallen standard of education in the region and Ghana as a whole.

According to him, findings and analysis by the Ministry revealed that the inability of directors and managers to supervise and carry out managerial issues has brought about such bad practices including drunkenness and absenteeism.

He disclosed that “teacher absenteeism in the Volta region is the highest, over 45percent as compared to the national average of 27percent”.

He wondered why private basic schools which are bereft of qualified and underpaid teachers are rather doing better than public basic schools which has more qualified and better paid teachers, adding ‘the current situation is unacceptable because the performance of public second cycle and tertiary institutions are much better than the private ones, hence the need for the same results at the basic level.’

Mr. Ablakwa therefore charged education managers not to be “arm chair directors, relying on only paper reports and hearsay accounts” but also go to the field to ensure strict supervision and proper management of schools.