The best panacea for hardworking students to make excellent academic and technical breakthrough is to avoid bad and unhelpful company.

Mr Abraham N P Koomson, Headmaster of the Senya-Beraku Secondary/

Technical School (SECTECH), gave the advice at Senya-Beraku on Friday.

He was addressing students of the school after Mr Mowbray Amoah; leader of a team which represented the school at an anniversary quiz competition held at Winneba on March 6, had presented a package of awards the school won to the authorities at Senya-Beraku.

The quiz was organized by the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), with the assistance of the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Jubilee Anniversary Planning Committee.

Senya-Beraku Secondary/Technical School won the first position with 67 points, followed by Winneba Secondary School 64 points, Insaaniyya Secondary/Business School, Kasoa, third with 43 points.

Winneba Business School had 42 points to secure the fourth position, while the A M E Zion Girls Secondary School at Winneba and Obrachire Secondary/Technical School also occupied the fifth and the sixth places, respectively.

Mr Koomson was emphatic that no serious and ambitious student could make a meaningful headway in his or her academic, technical and vocational pursuit if one allowed the forces of bad company to control one.

He said the desire to shun such dangerous peer groupings must be cultivated and effectively maintained while in school and after graduation, so that they could make positive contributions towards national and community development.

Mr Koomson praised the contestants and teachers of the school who prepared the squad for their good work and advised them against complacency, if the school was to sustain the pride they had carved for themselves and the school in subsequent competitions.

He expressed the hope that the achievements chalked by the team would inspire their colleagues who did not take part in the competition and urged the contestants to study harder to strengthen the school's capability for such brain-works whenever they were called to represent the school anywhere.

On behalf of the contestants Mr Amoah, a teacher in social studies and government who led the team, expressed their appreciation to the authorities of the school for the honour done them and pledged to worker harder with other teachers to bring more honours to the school in future competitions.

The competition dealt mainly with issues bothering the history of the country, especially about matters connected with pre-independence and post-independence Ghana.

GNA