Mission Statement on Education

To improve literacy and numeracy skills in basic schools by 20% every year and increase the percentage pass in the B. E. C. E. by 10% every year whilst also decreasing dropout rate from 25% to 5% by the year 2010.

The municipal Directorate of Education, is one of the six decentralized departments under the Nzema East municipal Assembly. The office, formerly known as Axim District Education Office was carved out of the then Sekondi Education office. It was created on the 15th October, 1963 with offices within the premises of the Old Court on Grant Hill, Axim. The first municipal Education Officer was Mr. S. B. N. Asamoah.

In 1964 when the court was razed down by fire, the office was transferred to Fort St. Antonio where it remained until the construction of a permanent office block, in 2002. After Mr. S. B. N. Asamoah, came Mr. P. B. Eshun in 1965. He was succeeded by Mr. Odoom Arizi followed by Mr. Quarshie. Then came the turn of Mr. Austine, Mr. Swatson, Mr.Nuertey Debrah, and Mr. Affel in that order. Mr. James Sey Yankson also acted for a brief period in 1993. In 1995, the office was raised to the status of a directorate and Mr. J. G. W. Essah Hienwo was appointed the first municipal Director. He remained in office until 2003 when he retired from the Ghana Education Service.

Mr. Francis Ackah an Assistant Director in charge of Finance and Administration acted as the head of the directorate for some time In August, 2004 Mr. P.K. Jimpetey-Djan took over the administration of the directorate as the second substantive Director. The office is situated on the same grounds as the District Administration. It has a bookshop beside it and an overhead tank that supplies water regularly. With these facilities the office can be said to be adequately resourced.

The Directorate is headed by a municipal Director and assisted by four frontline Assistant Directors, responsible for Finance and Administration, Human Resource Management and Development, Supervision and Management and Planning, Monitoring, Data Collection, Research and Records (statistics) respectively. For effective management of schools the Nzema East municipal has been divided into nine circuits, namely, Axim South, Axim North, Esiama, Atuabo, Aiyinasi South.

The rest are Aiyinasi North, Lower Ankobra, Upper Ankobra and Nkroful circuit. There are 9 Circuit Supervisors who are responsible for the respective circuits. They form the direct link between the schools and the municipal Education Office thereby reporting their findings to the municipal Director of Education. The municipal Director in turn relays such information to the D.E.O.C where necessary.

The Munucipal Education Oversight Committee (M.E.O.C.)

The Nzema East municipal Education Oversight Committee (M.E.O.C.) was inaugurated on 23rd January, 1997 at the municipal Assembly Hall, Axim, during which the functions and guidelines were clearly defined and copies given to Committee members.

The M.E.O.C. has since then been meeting to deliberate on educational issues. The M.E.O.C., the highest governing authority on education, is charged with the responsibility of overseeing all matters pertaining to education at the municipal level. It is composed of the municipal Chief Executive as the chairman the Assistant Director for Supervision as the Secretary; Municipal Director of Education, Presiding Member, a traditional Council representative, Municipal GNAT Secretary, NEMA representative, Social Welfare Officer, PTA representative, Muslim representative and Christian representative.

The dream of the directorate is to expose pupils/students to high quality, and accessible educational opportunities that will minimize barriers to post JSS education, maximize pupils/students success, and improve the lives and well-being of individuals through the:

• improvement of access and participation

• provision of quality teaching and learning

• application of efficient and effective management and leadership skills.

Aims of the Directorate

The Nzema East Municipal Directorate of Education is aimed at the following:

• To increase the percentage pass of aggregate 06 from 0.13% to 10% every year.

• To decrease dropout rate from 25% to 5% for the year 2010.

• To improve literacy and numeracy in basic schools by 20% every year.

• To train all SMC/PTA executives in capacity building to enhance their work by the year 2007.

Achievements

The key achievements after the implementation of the Annual Municipal Education Operational Plan (ADEOP) include,

1. Participation and collaboration of all education stakeholders in manning the various schools in the district.

2. Provision of quality teaching by some of the teachers in the district.

3. Minimizing barriers to post JSS Education and

4. mprovement in literacy and numeracy in students.

One of the interventions initiated and introduced by the Municipal Education Directorate to improve teaching and learning in the municipal was “Parents Day”. Below were the rationale behind the introduction of the “Parents’ Day”.

• To bring parents to their wards’ schools to assess the academic performance

• To make teachers duty conscious and professionally proactive.

• To create awareness in pupils that parents would come to the school to find out how they fare and therefore stop playing truancy.

• To allow parents to see how other parents are helping their pupils perform through the acquisition of textbooks, exercise books, clothing among others.

• To interact with teachers so as to know pupils problems and general problems confronting the schools.

The second best practice of the municipal was the organization of reading and spelling competition which was aired on radio.

STAFFING POSITION

Type Professional Non-Professional

M F Total M F Total Grand Total

Central Administrator 22 5 27 20 6 26 53

pre-Schools - 11 11 - 223 223 234

Primary 178 71 149 241 37 278 527

JSS 185 30 215 97 3 100 315

SSS 101 25 126 76 36 112 238

Technical 43 - 43 31 7 38 81

Total 529 142 671 465 312 777 1,448

 Educational Characteristics

Educational Facilities And Enrollment Levels

The Nzema East municipal has the following Educational establishments:

• Pre-Schools - 132

• Primary School - 138

• Junior Sec. School - 67

• Senior Sec. School - 4

• Tertiary Institutions - 3

The number of Private Schools and institutions, as compared to the previous years is on the increase. Out of a total of 132 Pre-Schools, 20 are privately owned and managed, of Primary Schools, 19 are also privately owned. At the Junior School level 7 out of a total of 67 are privately owned and managed. The only exception here is at the Senior Secondary School level where all the four (4) schools are Public ones. At the Tertiary levey, out of the 3 Institutions, only Kikam Technical Institute is Publicly owned while the remaining 2, Esiama Public Health Nursing School and Asanta Teacher Training College are run by Religious Organisations.

The infrastructure of majority of these schools are in fairly good conditions that they mostly need only rehabilitation. On the contrary, a look at enrolment levels, especially at the basic school level indicated a rise in school participating rate Emphasis will therefore be on construction of new buildings to add to the existing ones and also help accommodate the teachers to enhance teaching and academic work.

A critical look at the Individual Enrolment levels indicate that it is only at the Tertiary level Institutions: Axim Women’s Training Institute and World Alive Nursing School that the females outnumber the males. On the contrary, Kikam Technical Institute has 689 males as against 3 females. These trends have serous implications for development and have to be addressed in the programme planning stage.

It is relevant to note that most of the Teachers in the municipal are untrained. Out of a total of 1,076 Teachers, only 475, representing 44% are trained. This is even more pronounced at the Pre-School level where 95%.3% are untrained. This problem may be due to the lack of basic social amenities and Teachers accommodation in most parts of the District. There is the need, therefore to address this problem to attract more trained-Teachers to the municipal and especially to the deprived communities.

The Teacher – Pupil ratios of Nursery, Primary and Junior and Senior Secondary Schools for the municipal stand at 1:39, 1:41, 1:21, and 1:23 respectively. These compared to the National ratios of 1:40 and 1:35 for primary and JSS in particular might portray the picture that teachers are under utilized in the municipal. It again goes to buttress the earlier fact that school participation rate is low in the municipal.

Youth and Sports

With a dynamic youthful population of about 62%, there is the urgent need for the municipality to create a conducive and enabling environment for the youth to channel their energies into and not dissipate it on wasteful ventures. Sports development has been identified as a major tool for recreation and well-being as well as economic development. The municipal has a number of football and Volleyball teams but woefully lacks basic sports infrastructure.

There is virtually no standard football field as well as facilities for other sports like basketball, volley ball, badminton, tabletennis among others. These need to be addressed in collaboration with the private sector to promote sports. The municipal Assembly would have to facilitate development of Spots to promote employment and tourism and enhance health and also as a tool for social mobilization and JSS in particular might portray the picture that teachers are under utilized in the municipal. It again goes to buttress the earlier fact that school participation rate is low in the municipal.

Functional Literacy Programme

The literacy rate (simply defined as the ability to read and write) of the District is estimated at 30% which is lower when compared to the National one of 67%. The level of education in the municipal is also very low. This trend does not augur well for development. The implication is that a significant number of the adult population, especially females remain illiterate and therefore need to be trained through Non-formal education programme. The municipal Assembly should therefore, institute programmes and projects like Apprenticeship trainings, modular courses and skills training especially for the youth and school-dropout.

School Logistics

Although, of late, there has been a significant improvement in the supply of school furniture, textbooks and other logistics, this has not kept pace with the increase in enrollment and the replacement of these items. With a projected increase in enrollment social mobilization of the people for development. In this regard, the Axim Sports Complex project would have to be pursued to help achieve this goal.

Nzema East now is made up of five (5) circuits:

- Axim North

- Axim South

- Lower Ankobra

- Central Ankobra

- Upper Ankobra

 
The number of circuit used to be four (4) until 2009 when Central Ankobra was created out of the four circuits to facilitate the work of the Circuit Supervisors.

As indicated from the table above the number of KGs, Primary and Junior High Schools (JHS) in the Municipality are 57, 53 and 27 respectively.

There is only one Public Senior High School (SHS) at Nsein near Axim and a Community Girls High Senior at Axim. This Girls school was established in September 2007. There is also a Vocational Institute for Women in Axim.

Private Schools

There are nine (9) registered private schools in the Municipality. All of them have the KG and Primary sections. One of them, however, does not have the JHS section. There are no registered Private Schools in Axim North and Lower Ankobra. Six (6) of them are found in Axim in Axim South Circuit, two in Central Ankobra and one in Upper Ankobra.

Second Cycle Institution

The only public Second Cycle Institution in Nzema East is Nsein SHS. It is a mixed school founded some fifty years ago with a current student population of over one thousand. There is also a Community High School for Girls established in 2007 and a Vocational Training Institute in Axim.

These two Girls Institutions are meant to promote Girl-Child Education which is not at all encouraging in the Municipality.

Enrolment. Enrolment generally has been increasing from year to year mainly due to the provision of the capitation grant and the introduction of the school feeding programme.

In terms of gender, more females than males are registered at the KG level, but the number of females keeps dwindling from the Primary to the JHS Level. The dwindling in number in female enrolment from the KG to the JHS Level is clearly shown in the table above. The overall percentage of Male and Female pupils for the period (2006 – 2009) stands at 52.7% and 47.3% respectively.

This situation calls for the aggressive promotion of Girl-Child at school could be as follows:

- Low premium put on the education of the Girl-Child

- Early marriages and teenage pregnancy

- Loss of interest in formal education by some girls

- Families compelled by financial restraints to sponsor only male wards at school

Staffing

School staffing by gender for the 2009 – 2010 academic year stands as follows:

The staffing figures above show that there are more male teachers than the females. In the Primary and JHS sections the males far outnumbers the females. In the KG section however, 99% of the teachers are females.

Trained and Untrained Teachers

Staffing is one of the serious challenges facing the sector in the Municipality. Very few of the teachers are trained.

It is very difficult to retain the teacher at the deprived areas. The number of the few trained teachers decreases from year to year as they leave for any other district they find attractive.

Many of the schools are manned by untrained teachers made up of SSSCE/WASSCE holders and some drawn from the National Youth Employment Programme.

From the information provided it could be seen that it is only at the JHS Level where the number of trained teachers is slightly above that of the untrained ones. The situation worsens from the Primary to the KG Level.

From the staffing figures above it could be seen that from 2006 – 2010 the percentage of trained teachers in the schools is only 31% as against that of 69% for the untrained teachers.

The Pupil-Teacher ratio at the KG Level is high as compared to the national ratio of 40:1 and 35:1. More teachers are needed at this level to make for effective class control and administration.

School Logistics

The supply of textbooks, exercise books, teaching aids and other logistics by GES has seen some improvement within the period under review especially in the 2008 – 2009 academic year.

The supply of school furniture however, was not as regular as expected, leaving some schools in shortage of dual desks as well as table and chairs for teachers.

The supply of chalk for the schools was delayed at the beginning of the 2009 – 2010 and it took a long time for the item to be supplied. The timely supply of school logistics in their right quantities is vital as increases in school enrolment are always anticipated.

School Feeding Programme

The schools benefiting from the programme are six (6) in number. Below are the schools concerned.

• Kegyina M/A Primary and KG

• Apataim Methodist Primary and KG

• Anibil Methodist Primary and KG

• Nsein Methodist Primary and KG

• Bokro M/A Primary and KG

• Yediyesele M/A Priamry and KG

The first school to be captured under the programme is Kegyina Primary and KG in December, 2008 and the last to be brought on board is Yediyesele Primary and KG in March, 2009. The other schools were also captured between January and March, 2009.

It is hoped that many more schools will be absorbed into the system as it is the desire of many of the local communities.

Attention however, must be shifted to schools that are situation at disadvantage areas.

Overall Education Goals and Way Forward

The overall educational goal of the Municipality is the improvement of the quality of Education delivery. However, this objective is far from being achieved because of the constraints and challenges within the sector.

Major Challenges

Many of the challenges identified in the previous plan to be addressed are still outstanding.

 
Some of them could be listed as follows:

• Lack of basic schools infrastructure and essential logistics

• Inadequate number of trained teachers in the schools

• Many of the schools are located in deprived areas

• Lack of input and logistics for the promotion of the study of ICT in the Municipality

Strategies to Remedy the Situation

• Rehabilitation and expansion of school infrastructure and essential logistics

• Provision of teachers’ accommodation specially in deprived areas

• Sponsorship for Teacher Trainees in Training Colleges and Colleges of Education

• Promotion of the study of ICT at the Basic and 2nd Cycle Schools

• Sustaining the Annual Municipal Mock Examination for JHS finalists and promotion examination for Primary Six Pupils to JHS one

• Promotion of sports and cultural activities at the Basic and 2nd Cycle Levels

• Medium and long term plan of action to bring development to areas known to be deprived

• Sustaining the Municipal Best Teacher / Worker Award to honour dedicated and hardworking GES staff

• Annual send-off for retiring GES staff in the Municipality

School Infrastructure and Essential Logistics

School infrastructure and essential logistics are woefully inadequate as far as education delivery is concerned. This area needs urgent attention as many do not have classrooms and adequate furniture. Again, toileT and urinal facilities are lacking in the majority of the schools.

Listed below are a number of Basic Schools that need classroom Blocks:

Perennial issue of Inadequate Trained Teachers in the Municipality

Concerns have been expressed over the high number of untrained teacher as against the very small number of trained ones in the schools (see tables 21 and 22). The deprived nature of many of the places does not attract teachers to stay for long. Many of them leave after three years’ stay and some stay even less than that.

The yearly allocation of newly trained teachers from the college of education to Nzema East has been nothing to write home about.

 The allocation to the Municipality for the past four years stands as follows: We cannot raise the standard of education to the level we all desire in the Municipality if we do not have the requisite manpower on the ground.

Some efforts must be made to ‘lure’ many trained teachers to the Municipality namely:

• The offer of some incentive packages to attract more teachers to the area

• The establishment of a college of education in the area to stem the tide

• Serious and systematic sponsorship of trainee teachers in the Training Colleges/College of Education by the Municipal Assembly to secure the services of these teachers after training

Schools in Deprived Areas

A good number of our Basic Schools in the Municipality are located at disadvantage places or deprived areas. Many of the schools lack basic school infrastructure. Potable water and electricity supply are non-existent. There are no access roads to many of these places. Some of the schools could only be reached by footing and some by the canoe.

During the raining season some of these areas are completely inaccessible. The worst affected areas are found in Upper and Lower Ankobra.

Some of these deprived schools are listed as below:

Equal Education for all

We cannot boast of equal education for all when some of the people are found in areas where they have no access to quality education. The opening up of these places to development is one of the surest ways of bridging the gap between the advantaged and the disadvantaged.

Linking the deprived areas with access roads, providing basic social amenities such as potable water electricity supply, housing and good healthcare facilities will go a long way to attract teachers to these places to man our schools.

Concrete efforts should be made by all stakeholders in education to address the issue. Local parliamentarians, the Municipal Assembly, Assemblymen, Traditional Rulers and Opinion Leaders could liase with relevant Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to find short and long term solutions to these pressing challenges.

Soliciting assistance from concerned Individuals, NGOs, Corporate Bodies and Foreign Development Partners could also be an additional option.

Study of ICT in the Municipality

The study of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the Municipality is nothing to write home about. The schools are without computers and their accessories to undertake the programme. ICT instructors are not readily available as the study of the subject is undertaken in isolated cases.

The absence of electricity power in the majority of the areas further compounds the challenges.