(Accra, Dec. 15)
This year's National Delegates Congress of BONABOTO, also known as the Annual Homecoming Summit, has been launched in Accra under the theme "Education for All, Myth or Reality in the BONABOTO Area ". Launching the programme, Mr. Vitus Azeem, National Chairman of the Association called on the government and the communities in the area to collaborate to ensure an increase in school enrolment of children so as to help curb the increasing number of school dropouts and street children from the area.

Mr. Azeem added that recent media reports had indicated that about 50 percent of children in the Bongo and Bolgatanga areas are out of school, while the report on the district JSS examinations published in the media had shown a downward trend in the Bolgatanga municipality, while Bongo improved marginally. The chairman further pointed out that with an increasing cost of education, and the continued impoverishment of the people in the area, the education for all programme is likely to be a myth if the situation is not critically looked at and a sustainable programme put in place to develop the human capital of the area to serve as a base for improving the socio-economic lives of the people. "We have no cocoa, we have no arable land for farming and we have no industries, but we must strive to educate our children very well," Mr. Azeem emphasized.

The congress is scheduled to take place in Bolgatanga from December 29 - 31, 2004. Mr. Azeem urged all citizens of the area to consider the call very seriously and participate fully to make the programme a success.