The Tema Community Eight Number Three and Four basic cluster of schools celebrated their fortieth anniversary with a call on parents to desist from shifting their responsibilities onto government. Mr Alex Owusu Asare, Chairman of Tema Schools Management Committee, advised parents to take full responsibility of their children saying government alone could not effectively cater for the children without the support of parents. According to him, while some parents had shirked their responsibilities of feeding their children before going to school due to the introduction of the school feeding programme, others refused to provide them with uniforms, stationery and other school materials because of the capitation grant. Mr Asare advised parents to change their notion about the capitation grant as providing free education to children in public schools, but rather invest adequately in their children’s education. The Tema Municipal Educational Director, Mrs Lucy Kwapong,speaking on the theme: ’Importance of kindergarten in the new education reform’ stated that it was prudent for children between the ages of four and six to benefit from pre-school education as they go through teachings that would prepare them for primary education. She said apart from giving the children the chance to be independent from their mothers, it also created the opportunity for the kids to socialize with others and learn to be tolerant of each other. Commending the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of the schools for planning to establish a kindergarten in their primary sector, Mrs Kwapong explained that, the presence of such a facility on their compound would provide a smooth transition of the pupils to class one. Madam Theresa Crentsil, Headmistress of Community Eight Number Three School, appealed to the community to help fence the school compound, which had become a hide out for criminals. In a report, she said the school, established in 1967, had about 1,000 pupils and students adding that, the Community Eight Number Three School obtained 71 percent, while Community Eight Number Four School got 76 percent passes in the 2006 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). Source: GNA