Education

Education is key in the development of any District and Country. As a result of Government policies such as School Feeding, Free Education has curb illiteracy and improved enrolment in the District.

There has been rapid improvement in enrolment since the introduction of the Free SHS policy by the Government. Enrolment increased by 88.4% from 26,341 to 29,001 but dropped to 27,841 in 2020 education census.

This decrease can be attributed to parents’ refusal to send their wards to school during the COVID crises and also teenage pregnancy is an issue. In the public basic schools, there are a total of 25 computers and 3 ICT labs.

Indicating there is a lack of ICT infrastructure in the basic schools. Central Tongu has 167 educational facilities comprising of 130 Public and 37 Private educational facilities. The Central Tongu District area has nine (9) circuits, namely; Adidome, Anfoe, Bakpa Avedo, Devime, Kpedzeglo, Mafi Kumase, Sasekpe and Zongo.

Enrollment Ratio

The net enrollment rate is the ratio between all students in the theoretical age group for primary education enrolled in that level and the total population in that age group.

The ratio of the specific age (4-5 years) enrolment of pupils in KG to the district population of children aged 4-5 years. The Net Enrolment Ratio for Kindergarten is 13.55% which indicates that, a lot of children in the District do not enter Kindergarten at the right age that is 4-5years.

That of Primary is 49.49% which means almost 50% of the pupils in Primary are at the right age of enrollment.

That of JHS is 27.29% and SHS is 9.67%. Although government interventions and policies led to a general increase in enrollment, still some pupils were not enrolled at their respective age groupings due to various factors in terms of location and distance.

Gross Enrolment Ratio Gross Enrollment Ratio is to determine the number of students enrolled in school at several different levels to the number of student population who qualify for the particular level. The ratio of the enrolment of pupils by level (Primary 1-6) to the District population of children aged 6- 11 years, Kindergarten is 4-5 years and JHS being 12-15 years

The Gross Enrolment Ratio for Kindergarten is 0.99%, which shows the percentage of children at KG irrespective of age relative to the District population age 4-5 years. This means that the number of pupils in that age bracket is low.

 1.6.3 Gender Parity Index

The ratio of females to males.

Gender Parity Index (GPI) of 1 represents equal representation of boys and girls. GPI > 1 shows more girls than boys in a particular level, whilst GPI < 1 represents more boys than girls for basic level and second cycle respectively.

The Gender Parity Index across all levels except Kindergarten is greater than 1 which means there are more girls than boys. Gender parity has however not been achieved in KG.

 1.6.4 Teacher Pupil Ratio

The percentage of trained teachers in the District stands at 72.2% for the Public Educational Facilities and 3.6% for the Private Educational Facilities. The challenges facing the education sector are listed below;
 1. Inadequate school infrastructure
2. Insufficient teaching and learning materials.
3. Lack of maintenance of school infrastructure

 5.0 1.7 Information and Community Technology The importance of Information Communications Technology (ICT) for sustainable development in any country cannot be overemphasized.

 In today’s knowledge, information-based and globalized society, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a key role in socio-economic development.

The usage of ICT has become one of the tools for development. Access to internet facility, desktop or laptop computers and ownership of mobile phones are available in the District. For instance, there are 35.3% of persons 12 years and older who owns mobile phones.

A considerably higher proportion of males (43.5%) than females (28.4%) own mobile phones. Also, 15.6% owns a desktop or laptops computers and 20% of people aged 12years and older who use internet facilities are male dominated.