Williams Aduum, the outgoing Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for the Kassena-Nankana Municipality of the Upper East Region, has appealed to stakeholders to help improve the quality of education and reverse the recent poor performances.
He said despite the huge investment by the government in the educational sector, the performance of school children in the area in recent years, especially at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) level, was on the decline.
In 2018, the Municipality presented a total of 1,841 candidates, comprising 925 males and 916 females, but only 33.8 per cent passed.
In 2019, a total of 1,902 candidates were presented, which consisted of 919 males and 983 females, and out of this, 53.9 per cent passed.
“In 2020, a total of 2,102 candidates were presented, made up of 1,049 males and 1,053 females, and 44.1 per cent passed.
Addressing the first ordinary annual meeting of the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly in Navrongo, Mr Aduum stated that the Municipal Directorate of the Ghana Education Service was worried and had mapped out strategies to reverse the trend, especially at the basic level.
The Outgoing MCE disclosed that the Education Directorate had implemented pragmatic measures to ensure that at the Junior High School level, teachers of subjects that the pupils performed poorly in, below 50 per cent at the BECE, would be reposted to different schools irrespective of the location or distance.
“At the Primary level, teachers will have their output measured throughout the year by the School Improvement Support Officer (SISO) and other scheduled officers from the directorate who will then advise Management at the end of the year with regard to reposting of teachers,” he stated.
Mr Aduum admonished teachers not to view the reposting as punishment but as part of efforts to reverse the abysmal performance of the pupils at the BECE level and urged all stakeholders, especially those in the educational sector to play their roles effectively.
On agriculture, Mr Aduum noted that the Assembly in 2021 received 72,400 and 4,400 subsidized NPK and Urea fertilizer respectively under the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJs), which were distributed to 6,239 farmers, including 4,511 males and 1,728 females in the Municipality.
He said the Assembly also received 15 motorbikes under the Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) to aid in the delivery of extension services to farmers in the Municipality.
GNA
