GOLDEN JUBILEE ANNIVERSARY OF GHANA’S REPUBLIC DAY

A luncheon has been held for selected senior citizens from the Abura Asebu Kwamankese District to round up activities to commemorate the Golding Jubilee Anniversary of the nation’s Republic Day.

Prominent among the senior citizens was the Omanhene of the Abura Traditional Area, Nana Otu X who was also the oldest among the guests. He was 95years.

Prizes were also presented to the oldest among the senior citizens from each of the three traditional areas which constitute the district

.Featured prominently in a pre-independent discussion at the DCE’s residence was Pre-independence disturbances which transcended tribal lines across the country. The occasion was also used to renew appeal to the youth to show patriotism towards mother Ghana.

Mr. Richard   Baiden, a retired broadcaster who made the appeal, expressed regret about the absence of patriotism which was imbibed in the citizenry during Dr Kwame Nkrumah’s era. Katmanto Andzie Mensah Nyaa VIII, Chief of New Ebu, Ocheame Kwame Amoyaw   and Odikro of Abura   Dunkwa, Nana Kwesi Osam all took turns to address the audience

.At the ceremony included the DCE Hon Aba Edusah, some Heads of Department and a cross- section of the general public.

Earlier in the day, the DCE, some heads of department and some of their staff took part in a health walk through some principal streets of Abura Dunkwa town. This was followed by a foot ball gala between the four second cycle schools in the district, namely Aggrey Memorial Zion School, Asuansi Technical Institute, Abakrampa Senior High and Aburaman    Senior High

.Aggrey Memorial Zion School eliminated Asutech in the prelims and went ahead to defeat the host school Aburaman in the finals through a penalty shootout which ended 7-6 at the Catholic School Park. Aburaman also beat Abakrampa Senior High to qualify to the final.

 The winner and the first runners-up received a brand new foot ball and cash prizes whilst the third and fourth, Asutech and Abakrampa Senior High received only cash prizes.

On 30^th June, Basic Schools from both public and private in Abura Dunkwa town ship took part in a rout march through some principal streets of the town to herald the occasion.

STORYBY ISAAC LARTEY COMMEY, ABURA DUNKWA

Second cycle Institutions to get internet

Saltpond (C/R), May 3, GNA - All second-cycle educational institutions in the country would be hooked on to the internet by 2012. They would also be provided with Information Communication and Technology (ICT) facilities to enhance teaching and learning. Mr Kofi Attoh, Administrator of the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), gave the hint when he led a delegation from Uganda on a visit to the Community Information Centre (CIC) at Saltpond at the weekend.

The four-member visiting team was in Ghana to study the CIC concept for replication in Uganda.

The CIC is a community centre equipped with communication technology facilities to enhance easy accessibility to information and also enable people to acquire information and communication technology (ICT) skills.

Mr Attoh, who was formerly Member of Parliament for Ho Central, said 120 CICs had been built throughout the country but only 78 had been equipped.

He said 20 of the centres had been selected for upgrading to a model CIC status before the end of 2010.

"The model CICs would be provided with additional 20 Computers, one Server, 21 Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS,) Internet, Wide Area Network, Local Area Network, Projectors and Air-conditioners. Mr Attoh appealed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to add value to CICs to serve as a revenue generation facility for the Assemblies.

He said additional computers would be bought to complement the 10 donated to the Centres by GIFEC so that people could go and learn ICT for a fee. Printers and photocopiers could also be added to serve the people for a fee.

Mr Henry Kweku Hayfron, Municipal Chief Executive, who led the team on the inspection said an ICT Club had been formed in the Municipality to study the subject, adding that patronage was high.

He said the Assembly had installed 30 more computers at the centre to meet the high demand for ICT services.

Mr Hayfron mentioned regular power outages as the major challenge to the centre and appealed to GIFEC to provide them with a stand-by generator, a projector, laptops, colour printer and colour photo copier to enable the centre to generate its own funds to support is activities.

Abura Asebu Kwamankese District Assembly donate computer to CIC

The Abura Asebu Kwamankese District Assembly, under the able leadership of Hon. Aba Edusah, presented five sets computers to the Communit Information centre on 4th March,2010 as part of its expansion project to the CIC.

The computers  were given to increase the capacity of the CIC in rendering its social services to the community.

The DCE, Hon. Aba Edusah made a promise to donate more computers to the centre when she sees the computer has been put into good use.

CIC Abura Dunkwa sets it Management Committe

The DCE of Abura Asebu Kwamankese District, Hon. Aba Edusah scheduled meeting to set up Management board to manage the affairs of the CIC-Abura Dunkwa.
The Management Board comprised of
Representative of the District Assembly at the Unit.
• Representative of Health Services
• Representative of Ghana Education Service
• Representative of Information Services Department (to serve as Secretary).
• Representative of the Ministry of Agriculture
• Representative of Telecom Service Providers
• Representative of NGO’s

The new board concluded on expanding the services of the CIC to other parts of  District.

CIC Designs School Database for Schools

It has been the task of the CIC to come out with a database design that will hold information about students in electronic format.
This database is designed in Ms Access, one of the outstanding applications in Microsoft Office suite.
In this database, they can enter the full name of the student, form, date of birth and even upload student picture into the database.
It is a comprehensive and easy to use application for all school.
It is now on its testing phase.

Schools in Ghana with internet connectivity can now register on-line for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) conducted by the West Africa Examinations Council (WAEC).

This follows the introduction of an on-line registration procedure for the BECE last Monday after almost two decades of running the examination in the country.



The head of the Test Administration Department of WAEC, Mr Kweku Nyamekye-Aidoo, who made this known to Daily Graphic, said the on-line registration would be done alongside the old registration procedure (Batch Registration) which involved the registration of candidates in groups on Compact Discs.



He said the aim of the introduction of the on-line procedure was to ensure that core data of the candidates remained intact, thereby preventing the mixing up of candidate’s data. He said the Batch Registration was being done alongside the on-line registration to ensure that those who did not have the on line facility could do so, saying that the online registration was done by the schools of candidates and not individuals.



Mr Nyamekye-Aidoo indicated that all the information of candidates who would be writing the examination had to be on-line, and that the council would transfer the information of candidates who were registered through the Batch Registration, on-line.



He said there was no cause for alarm as the council undertook education programmes to educate school authorities on the new registration procedure.



He said information of candidates on-line would be for reading only, and that no one, no matter the access to the password of a school would be able to change any candidate’s information.



Mr Nyamekye-Aidoo said it was only at WAEC that a school that wanted to make a change to the bio-data of a candidate could do so.



He, therefore, advised parents and guardians to ensure that whatever information they provided on their children was accurate.



Mr. Nyamekye-Aidoo said “parents and guardians should state clearly how they want the names of their children spelt, in which order and provide their accurate date of birth”.



On the cost of registration per candidate, he said, the examination fee was GH¢6 as the government was paying GH¢14 per candidate as subsidy for each candidate, adding that schools must adhere strictly to the registration fee of GH¢6 and not add anything.

The Director of Basic Education Division of the GES, Mr Stephen Adu, urged heads of basic schools to spell out any additional fee for the registration of candidates and not lump all the fees as registration fees. He said there should be a breakdown of any fee, such as cost of photographs and extra tuition or extra mock examination should be made clear to parents. He added that such additional fees should be approved by a district education director.



Mr Adu said schools must make parents aware of the money (GH¢14) government was paying for each candidate since the original fee of the examination was GH¢20.



“Schools, be they public or private must give a clear break down of fees they are charging for the examination and not lump the registration fee of GH¢6 with other fees and term them as BECE examination fee,” he said.



Source: Daily Graphic/Ghana

Abakrampa visits us

Abakrampa Senior High School, one of the the outstanding senior high schools in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese District, has been making good use of our facility.

This school almost visit the CIC twice in a term for internet orientation and basic computer tutorials.

Free Computer Literacy Trainng for Basic Schools in the Community

The Abura Dunkwa Community Information Centre has now added to its services, basic computer training for all basic schools in the community. This is inline with the introduction of ICT as core subject in the basic level of education.

The centre has identifed the need to intervene and help these schools since there ae currently no computers in these basic schools in the community but will be sitting for ICT in the final exams.

The Community Information centre will allow those schools use the centre as their computer laboratory to do practicals on what have been taught in classroom and we think this could help help the children have better understanding about what is taught.

ICT has been identified as a tool for development and the Community Information Centre being the hub for community will do all takes to make the community benefit from it.

Workshop for CIC Managers

The UNDP, GIFEC in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications held a one week intensive workshop for some selected Community Information Center Managers at Nkawie in the Atwima Nwabiegya District.

The workshop was targeted mainly on the sustainability and management of the centre. The Gifec Technical Manager, Mr. Agyei-Tekyi and two facilitators from UNDP, Truth Lumor and Agyenim-Boateng took us through how to write a good business plan, project management and proposals.

Mr. Philip Prempeh, GIFEC Business Development Manager, took us through how to identify good entrepreneurial skills and identifying our potential clients.

Mr. Fred Ampiah, The UNDP patnership Advisor and Head of ICT had a talk on some general issues CIC managers are facing and its solutions to it. He explained some potential business areas we can target and the benefits the CICs should deliver to its various communities.

The workshop helped us to understand more about the setting up of the CIC and the kind of impact it should have on the various communities it finds itself in.

Abura Dunkwa Community Information Center.

Community Information Center, Abura Dunkwa falls under the Abura Asebu Kwamankese District Assembly in the Central Region of Ghana.

The center became operational in 24th March, 2008. We have up till now provides a lot of services to the community and even beyond.

Some of the services we provide are as follows:

• Computer Training.
• Internet browsing
• Photocopy
• Scanning
• Printing
• Secretarial Services
• PC repairs etc.

The community has embraced this project and the kids particular, are benefiting a lot as it can said in the images below. (Click on the image to enlarge)