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EDUCATION

Akatsi-North District battles abysmal educational performance

A crunch meeting, triggered by the abysmal performance of pupils in this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Akatsi-North District, has been held at Ave-Dakpa to discuss ways to forestall the problem.

Date Created : 11/21/2013 12:00:00 AM : Story Author :

The district scored 17.6% in the BECE, with only 65 of the 370 entrants passing. Six out of the 16 schools got zero per cent.

The forum was organised by the Akatsi North District Assembly in collaboration with the district’s Oversight Committee on Education and the District Education Directorate.

Participants included headmasters, circuit officers and traditional rulers.

Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, Akatsi-North Member of Parliament (MP), addressing the meeting said investments in education needed to show dividends.

He said the picture, on the contrary, was that governments, parents and other stakeholders were wasting their resources.

The MP said the decline in educational performance represented a threat to the country’s future wellbeing.

Mr Nortsu-Kotoe said government, on its part, would continue to play its role and admonished parents to play their care and guidance role for their children effectively and relate well with teachers.

Mr James Gunu, District Chief Executive, said the pledge by his outfit to assist brilliant but needy junior high school graduates appeared dashed.

Mrs Kate Mikado, Education Director, who described the performance as sad, asked all stakeholders to accept blame, noting that quality teaching and learning were collective goals.

She urged Parent Teacher Associations and School Management Committees to evaluate the performance of the educational directorate and teachers periodically for remedial measures.

Mrs Mikado advised teachers to stop the protest against postings as œpupils everywhere need them.

She said the district had 147 teachers, including 49 untrained and 30 females and that the number was inadequate.

She advised teachers to make English the language for communication for pupils in upper primary to help in their general studies.

Some head teachers expressed reservations about suggestions that they kept dossiers on their subordinates to help check teacher truancy and laziness.

They said that method could degenerate into bad blood between heads and subordinates.

GNA