Aboadze — ABOUT 250 students from the Shama Traditional Area in the Shama Ahanta East Metropolis (SAEMA) have benefited from a scholarship scheme dubbed 'Karmer Scholarship' instituted by the Takoradi International Company (TICO), operators of the Aboadze Thermal Plant, as part of their social responsibility towards the development of the communities in their operation area.

This was made known by management of TICO at this year's presentation of the awards and a scholarship scheme to the needy but brilliant students in the above-mentioned traditional area.

This year alone, 86 needy but brilliant students have been selected from basic schools, secondary to the tertiary institutions to benefit from the scheme, which cost the company $22,000.

According to TICO management, 40 students were selected from the secondary schools, 13 at the basic level with 33 coming from tertiary institutions. They were selected from Aboadze, shama, and Aboase, all in the Shama Traditional Area.

The General Manager of TICO, Mr. Maranatha B. Balachander, in his address at the presentation ceremony, appealed to parents to send their wards to school.

Mr. Balachander noted the company would do every thing possible to keep their healthy relationship with the communities. According to him, their commitment to the development of the human resource capacity of the communities would also be strengthened. The general manager noted that it was prudent to have an enlightened society and that building the capacity of the communities could make that idea work effectively, especially regarding the human resource development.

The Member of Parliament for Shama Constituency, Mrs. Angelina Baiden-Amisah, who was the special guest for the occasion, asked the beneficiary students to utilise properly the opportunity given them and challenged them to eschew indiscipline as well as acts that could jeopardise their education and their entire future.

Mrs. Baiden-Amisah, who is also the Deputy Minister for Education, Science and Sports, also used the occasion to call on Ghanaians to support the new educational reform. This, she stressed, would make it work effectively to the satisfaction of all Ghanaians.

Meanwhile, A 23-year-old beneficiary student of the scholarship in the Aboadze community and a graduate of the University of Ghana, Mr. Augustine Gyasi Hayford, who was among the 250 students who have benefited from the scheme since its establishment in the year 2001, expressed his gratitude to TICO for the compassion and commitment shown to them towards the development of their human resource capacity.

He told this reporter in an interview that many graduates have been produced in TICO's operation areas since the scheme was instituted.