From Samuel Agbewode, Ho
Philanthropists from England, Mr. Clive Beccham and wife Pauline Beccham have pledged their support to ensure that children at the Grace Salvation Army Model School Complex at the Lepers Village in Ho are provided with modern school infrastructure to enhance effective teaching and learning in the school.
Mr. and Mrs. Beccham first visited the school three years ago and saw the Junior High School students learning under sheds, which made them to take up the challenge to raise 15,000 Pounds in England to provide the school with modern classroom block.
Speaking to The Chronicle at the Lepers Village, during a visit to see how the 15,000 Pounds was used, Mr. Clive, who was full of smiles, said he and his wife were so much satisfied to see a three unit modern classroom block built for the JHS, saying the money which was the contributions of the individuals abroad was effectively put to good use.
Mr. Clive, who is a teacher by profession, and the wife, a Librarian, noted that they were surprised to see JHS students studying under sheds, stressing that even though their efforts had provided three units modern classroom blocks for the school, more infrastructure must be provided for the school.
He said they have enjoyed their second visit to the school because they had seen tremendous improvement. According to them, during their first visit, the pupils were taken through reading tests, which was not encouraging but the situation has now changed.
The Philanthropists attributed the improved performance of the pupils to the hard work and commitment of the teachers and stressed that teachers who excelled in their professional work ought to be commended.
Mr. Clive and the wife also noted during their first visit that the school had no potable water and, therefore, decided to buy two poly tanks to store water for the pupils.
The Head teacher of the Grace Salvation Army School complex, Mr. Vincent Steven Gordor lauded the efforts of the Philanthropists saying the three modern classrooms that they provided for the JHS would go a long way to ensure effective teaching and learning in the school.
Mr. Gordor agreed to the observations made by Mr. Clive that the academic performance of the pupils had seen remarkable improvement, which he attributed to the support the Philanthropists had given to the school as well as the hard work of teachers.
The Head teacher further explained that apart from the provision of the three classroom blocks and the two poly tanks, the philanthropists also provided solar lamps to the school which had been put to effective use.
Mr. Gordor continued that before the philanthropists visited the school, there were no classroom visual learning aids to assist children in their studies, but the philanthropist had provided these classroom learning visual aids which had been pasted in all the classrooms.
He said the coming of the philanthropist had benefitted the school beyond description, noting that the school had no means in educating the children in the area of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the past but this has now been made possible.
Mr. Gordor explained that the philanthropists had provided the school with a computer and its accessories which was timely because the pupils and the students could not complete their basic education without skills in ICT, which had been introduced in schools to effectively equip the students with such knowledge.
He further explained that most of the teachers have enough knowledge in ICT as most of them have their own lap tops which they use to complement those provided by the philanthropist.
He thanked Mr. and Mrs. Clive for making teaching and learning more interesting in the school.
Touching on the performance of students of the school at the 2013 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), Mr. Gordor said the school did well by scoring 80 percent pass.
According to him, the school has a brighter future since teachers and other stakeholders had shown greater commitment in playing their roles.
Some of the parents who were attending Parents Teacher Association meeting (PTA) in the school said they were surprised about the rapid growth of the school, which they attributed to the activities of the philanthropists.
CAPTION: PIX 1 Philanthropist Mr. Clive Beccham and Pauline Beccham,
PIX 2 The three unit modern classroom and PIX3 is the poly tanks for the school