The Member of Parliament (MP) for the Okaikwei North Constituency, Theresa Lardi Awuni, has lamented the absence of a community library in her district, which she says deprives school children of access to books and other resources.
Awuni expressed her concern in an interview with Citi News during her visit to some centres conducting the ongoing Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).
According to the MP, she plans to work on obtaining land for a library and is also seeking support from government and other organizations to make this initiative a reality.
“In Okaikwei North, we are lacking infrastructural development. I think that the kids in Okaikwei North deserve better. There are other students who learn in very conducive environments and at the end of the day, they are all going to write the same exams. And so I think that it is incumbent on us, the Municipal Assembly, the government in power, to prioritize the kids because they are the future leaders. If we prepare them today, tomorrow they are secured.”
“We lack so much. Do you know that in the whole of Okaikwei North, we don’t even have a community library? If I get a land anywhere, I will put up a library for my kids. I will not wait for the government or anybody to put resources into it. There are spaces in Okaikwei that belong to the government that can be used for this, but people have given them out to their cronies. I am still looking around. If I fail to secure a land, I may be securing a mobile library,” she stated.
Regarding her observations of the BECE in her constituency, Ms. Awuni said, “I can say that they are poised and ready for the exams. A few were a bit afraid, you know, this exam fever. What the kids need most around this time is encouragement, so they need to be psychologically prepared to go and write. Sometimes it is not just about getting ready to go and write, but encouraging them to write. So in Okaikwei North, I know that my kids are ready to write.”