Vakpo gets Education Endowment Fund
Togbega Gbogbolulu V, Paramount Chief of Vakpo Traditional Area, has inaugurated a 27-member Board of Directors to manage a GH¢50,000 Education Endowment Fund established by the Traditional Area Council to promote education.
In an address, Togbega Gbogbolulu expressed concern about the deterioration of education standards in the traditional area.
He cited the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) atioiCE results where only one candidate out of the 45 presented by one of the schools in the area passed with aggregate 24.
“The Traditional Council decided to take some pragmatic steps to drastically reduce or halt this unpleasant development,” he said.
Togbega Gbogbolulu said the Council went into commercial farming and raised an initial capital of GH¢10,000 as seed money for the Endowment Fund dubbed VATRACEEF.
He said the two main objectives of the fund were to help brilliant but needy students with scholarships and also to support needy persons in the traditional area who may wish to acquire employable skills.
Togbega Gbogbolulu said one student was benefiting from the Fund at the Vakpo Secondary School and expressed the hope that with the successful inauguration of the Board, other deserving students would be awarded scholarships.
He said the seed money for the Endowment Fund was invested and the dividends would be used for the scholarships so as to sustain it.
Mr Joseph Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister, who was the special guest of honour, commended the chiefs and people for setting up the Endowment Fund, which, he said, would create more opportunities for their children to get access to higher education.
He said; “This also means Vakpo will have the opportunity and the financial resources to produce more educated citizens to effectively contribute not only to the development of Vakpo but the whole country.”
Mr Amenowode said government would support chiefs and queenmothers to enable them to play a leading role in the formulation and implementation of appropriate development plans for traditional areas.
He said peace and unity were necessary for sustained community development and called on the people of Vakpo to take advantage of the prevailing unity in the area to promote and ensure their sustainable development.
Mr Amenowode appealed to parents and guardians to invest in their children’s education and ensure that they regularly paid their school fees.
He also called on traditional and opinion leaders to make rules in their communities to prevent children from watching video.
Mr Kofi Agbo, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, thanked the Traditional Council for the bold initiative and promised that the Board would live up to expectation.
A fund-raising at the durbar raked in GH¢10,000.
Source: GNA