RESTRICT MINORS FROM PORNO WEBSITE — VEEP (NOV 16, SPREAD)

Story: Timothy Gobah & Chris Nunoo, Jirapa

THE Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, has called on Internet café operators to put in place stringent mechanisms which will restrict minors from accessing websites with sexual or negative content.
“Perhaps we need to achieve this by enforcing our laws on decency to enable our children and wards to benefit fully from the positive aspects of ICT,” he added
Mr Mahama was speaking at the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Saint Francis of Assisi Girls’ Senior High School at Jirapa in the Upper West Region.
It was on the theme, “50 years of quality Catholic education - The way forward: Reinforcement of the girl-child”.
Mr Mahama said it was better to teach the youth to take the right decisions and help them accomplish their potential, instead of allowing them to learn from wrong sources such as bad friends, through the Internet or the media, pointing out that it was about time parents intensified their efforts at sexual and reproductive health education which, in the past, was considered a taboo topic.
He stressed the need to put more attention on addressing cultural and economic issues such as elopement, early marriages and poverty which, over the years, had undermined girl education.
He urged past students of the school to set up an endowment fund to cater for needy, brilliant girls, as well as girls who opted to study Science.
“You, as old girls, should also make it a duty and encourage many of the past students to come back to serve the school for at least some reasonable period as a way of giving back something to the school which has made them what they are,” the Vice-President stated.
He commended the entire administration, staff and students of the school, both past and present, for their contributions in bringing it this far and said the government would turn it into a centre of excellence for the study of Science and Mathematics.
Touching on the contributions and role of the Catholic Church in education in the Upper West Region and the country as a whole, Mr Mahama expressed appreciation to the church and urged it to work to deepen and strengthen the partnership between it and the State.
That, according to him, was because both the State and the church sought to work to uplift the well-being of mankind but through different approaches.
The Headmistress of the school, Rev Sister Janice Gbiel, expressed appreciation to the government and the GETFund for their contributions towards the growth of the school.
She stressed the commitment of the staff to work tirelessly to put the school on a higher pedestal, adding that with discipline that could be achieved.
Rev Sister Gbiel, who traced the history of the school from its inception, called on philanthropic institutions to assist the school.
Earlier, Vice-President Mahama had paid a familiarisation visit to the Duong bone-setting clinic and also graced the maiden Speech and Prize-giving Day of the Duong Primary and Junior High School in the Nadowli District, where he assured the people of the commitment of the government to create the needed platform for a collaboration between orthodox medical practitioners and their traditional counterparts.
He also inaugurated an electricity project for the town and said the government would particularly accelerate the rural electrification project in the Upper West and East regions for the two regions to catch up with other parts of the country.