The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in the Sekyere East District has joined forces with World Vision Ghana to raise the civic awareness of basic school pupils in the district.
The idea is to inculcate a sense of nationalism and discipline in the children to enable them to grow to become responsible adult citizens.
As part of efforts to achieve this, the two institutions have organised a quiz competition on civic responsibilities, governance and current affairs for basic schools in the nine zones in the district.
The competition was aimed at reminding pupils of the participating schools of their responsibilities as students, citizens and future leaders and the need to be patriotic and committed to national development.
The Effiduase R/C Junior High School emerged as the winners of the maiden competition, followed by Senchi D/A Junior High School with Effiduase Presbyterian Junior High School in the third position.
They took home various prizes, including a trophy, copies of the 1992 Constitution, boxes of hand sanitisers, face masks, T-shirts and other learning materials.
Mr Michael Boahene, the District Director of NCCE, said it was important to expose pupils to their civic responsibilities early to nurture them to be good citizens.
This, he said, was the way to go to build a solid foundation for the country’s fledgling democracy and to sustain the gains since the country’s return to constitutional rule.
He underlined the need for conscious efforts by all relevant stakeholders to inculcate patriotism in the younger generation to live up to expectations when they assume leadership positions soon.
The NCCE Director praised the participating schools for exhibiting discipline throughout the competition and urged them to be law-abiding wherever they found themselves to serve as good ambassadors for their respective schools.
Mr Francis Gumah, Ashanti Regional Programmes Manager for World Vision Ghana, said the organization partnered with NCCE for the exercise because it was in line with its mandate to promote child development and welfare.
He was of the view that the exercise would improve the academic performance of the participants because of the efforts they made in terms of reading and research ahead of the quiz.
He gave the assurance that his outfit would continue to partner with the NCCE and other relevant stakeholders such as the Child Protection Committees in the District to tackle child-related issues, especially among vulnerable children.
