Formal education in the Kwahu South Municipality is provided by both public and private sectors. However, the public sector dominates. There are all levels of education from pre-school through primary, J.S.S., vocational/technical to university.

Generally, educational infrastructure in the district needs improvement. However, the situation is comparatively better in the second cycle institutions. The problem is even worse in the basic schools in the rural areas where some classrooms are built of mud or held under open sheds. A lot of classrooms even in the towns need rehabilitation. The District Assembly and Development Partners constitute the major source of provider of classroom blocks through funds released from the DACF and support from Dev’t Partners such as the European Union and USAID.

The student/pupil enrolment by level and sex. Generally, the enrolment levels for females are lower than their male counterparts. The enrolment levels especially for female is greater at the lower levels but keeps decreasing as the level increases and decreases sharply at the higher levels of education.

The enrolment at the pre-school is not encouraging as compared to the enrolment at the primary level. This could be explained by the fact that most of the children enter the primary school without going through the pre-school.

Management of Schools

Direct responsibilities for schools management rest with the head teacher/master of the respective schools who, in turn, are supervised by the Municipal Education Directorate headed by the Municipal Director. The School Management Committees (SMCs) and Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) assist in the management of the schools. The Municipality has 10 circuits with 10 supervisors who visit schools within their localities periodically to report on them. One major problem being faced by the circuit supervisors is mobility. Textbooks and other teaching aids are provided by government under the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (fCUBE).

Staffing in Schools

There is a total of 1,308 teachers in the Municipality out of this 42.6% are female whilst 57.4% represent males. A total of 338 representing 25.8% of teachers at the basic school level are untrained. The pupil/teacher ratio in the Municipality is 1:27.

Academic Performance

The Municipality needs to do more to improve on the academic performance. In year 2004 the overall academic performance for the BECE was 59.3%. This performance dropped to 43.5% in 2005. Information from the DDE indicate that the creation of the Kwahu West Municipal Assembly is partly responsible for the drop due to the fact that most of the performing schools are found at Nkawkaw which is no more part of the Kwahu South Municipality. Presently, there are three (3) School libraries located at Obomeng Presby JSS, Hweehwee Presby and Abene Methodist Schools. There are also three community libraries located at Oboimeng, Kwahu Tafo and Pepease.

Sports Development

Comparatively, sports development in the Municipality is on the low side though it forms part of the programmes in both first and second cycle schools. The Municipality has a sports stadium at Mpraeso. Annually, both first and second cycle schools organize sports competition in athletics and football. As part of the extra curricular activities, not much seriousness is attached to sports development due partially to lack of the necessary sports equipment and motivation. The stadium and numerous school playing fields lack important facilities like dressing rooms, toilets, urinary, first aid facilities etc. Besides, the stadium at Mpraeso needs to be upgraded.

Summary of Problems

1. Lack of permanent office accommodation

2. Poor academic performance

3. Inadequate residential accommodation for staff and teachers

4. Inadequate school infrastructure – Classrooms and furniture

5. Shortage of teachers especially for the rural schools

6. Inadequate teaching and learning materials

7. High female drop out rate in the higher institutions

8. Poor sports development

9. Inadequate supervision due to mobility problems