NA LIE; No Contract for School Uniforms has Been Given to China

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Deputy Education Minister

By Ekow Mensah

Mr Sammy Okudzeto—Ablakwa, Deputy Minister of Education is obviously bewildered.

He says that no contract for school uniforms has been awarded to any Chinese company.

“There is no truth in the rumour and I am wondering who put it out and for what purpose” he said.

Mr. Okudzeto – Ablakwa was speaking in an interview with “The Insight” in Accra yesterday.

He said “everything about the free school uniforms will be done here in Ghana.

“We insist that from fabric to sewing and distribution, everything should be done by local people”.

Mr. Okudzeto- Ablakwa said apart from making it easier for disadvantaged kids go to school, the supply of free school uniforms is intended to create jobs, assists the local textile industry and enhance the business of tailors and dressmakers.

“There is no way we will move away from these objectives” he said.

Editorial

Meeting Health Targets

It is puzzling that despite numerous interventions, certain health outcomes are stubbornly hard to meet.

One such hard to meet goals is reducing the maternal mortality rate significantly. Health centers, especially those outside the metropolis continue to report fatalities on a regular basis.

Such outcomes are often only stated as statistics with little explanation as to why specific events took place. With such paucity of information, it is understandable why it becomes so difficult to identify particular areas for redress. But a little digging can reveal causes such as lack of pre-natal care, overworked medical staff, poor nutrition etc.

These issues point to the fact that good health is often dependent on interlinked and interrelated factors, all of which are important in achieving the desired outcome. For instance, it is very difficult to separate the question of poverty from poor health.

Knowledge can be helpful in choosing some behaviours and avoiding others, but the choices one makes depend on resources at one’s disposal, the ability to choose a balanced diet for instance.

These are ordinarily common knowledge, but sometimes they appear convenient to neglect in order to highlight what might appear to be popular.

This tendency, however, tends to be rather costly and expensive as we confront the same unsatisfactory results year after year.

Of course, we can’t wait for everyone to be rich before we cut down poor health outcomes, but we can still ensure that minimum conditions in all areas are in place to obtain desired outcomes.