The First Lady, Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, has commended women the world over, and especially Ghanaian woman in general for faithfully fulfilling their God-given responsibility of home management and child upbringing. Mrs Naadu Mills made the statement when she was speaking as a Special Guest of Honour at the Golden Jubilee celebration of St Louis College of Education in Kumasi at the weekend. She said that women were an embodiment of God's love and perfection and naturally "we epitomise sincerity, kindness, compassion, diligence, honesty and a host of attributes". She stressed that in the homes husbands were acceptably the 'heads' but the women were the 'heart' of the families She supported it with a biological proof that from the human anatomy, the closeness between the head and the heart was obvious, and said "one cannot deny the fact that without the heartbeat, man is clinically dead". Mrs Naadu Mills said it was commendable to observe that a greater percentage of teachers in the country had. exhibited resourcefulness and dedication in the performance of their duties stressing that "as a teacher myself, I have come to realise the enormity of the responsibility seeing my colleagues defying all odds to live up to expectation" Furthermore she said, "I am aware of the enormity of the challenges that we face as professionals, but since we have chosen this noble path of contributing to the growth of our dear nation, We have a God-given responsibility to give of our best". The First Lady advised the teachers to exhibit exemplary conduct in speech and manner so that they did not betray the trust reposed in them, stressing that as professionals, they should not do anything to undermine the great trust and confidence reposed in them. Mrs Naadu Mills commended the college for being one of the selected colleges offering Early Childhood Care and Development Course and, therefore, encouraged the administration, the staff and the students to work hard to make a positive impact on Early Childhood Education. Mrs Naadu Mills donated Gh¢10,000 towards the establishment of a well-resourced Early Childhood Centre. Agyewodin Adu-Gyamfi Ampem the Omanhene of Akyerensua Traditional Area, who stood in for Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene as the Special Guest of Honour of the occasion, noted that there was no doubt that education was the catalyst to the development of every nation. He stressed that without sound education, major problems like poverty, ignorance, deprivation and other factors, which impeded human development, could not be overcome. Agyewodin Ampem stressed that in pursuit of this objective, Otumfuo Osei Tutu placed a high premium on education when he ascended the throne as the Asantehene and within seven months of his enstoolment, launched the Otumfuo Education Fund to provide financial assistance to needy but brilliant students, among other objectives. He commended philanthropists for their support to education and mentioned the efforts of the immediate former captain of the Black Stars, Stephen Appiah who recently constructed a library to support children's education in Accra. Agyewodin Ampem appealed to individuals, organisations, churches and philanthropists to donate in cash and in kind to support educational development at community levels in Ghana The Minister of Education, Alex Tettey-Enyo, in a speech read on his behalf by Mr Kofi Opoku-Manu, the Ashanti Regional Minister, commended the Catholic Church for establishing the college 50 years ago with the aim at promoting academic excellence and nurturing young women to attain a high sense of moral and civic responsibilities as well as the readiness to discover, celebrate and respond to their God-given talents. The Principal of the College, Mrs Mary Ariane Druyeh, for her part, paid glowing tribute to the pioneer staff and students of the college who through dedication and perseverance laid a formidable foundation upon which the college was formally opened. She noted that over the past 50 years the college had gone through several phases and courses and by the grace of God, were able to sail through the storms She said the college had trained more than 12,000 teachers. Source: Daily Graphic