Tamale, May 26, GNA - Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region, have been asked to make funds available to directorates of education to help in undertaking supervision of basic schools to improve performance.
Mr Gaspard Dery, Tamale Metropolitan Coordinating Director, who made the call at a regional education forum in Tamale, said the situation where Circuit Supervisors of Education used their money to fuel their own motorbikes to carry out supervision of schools was not the best.
The forum was organised by League of Youth Association and Sagnarigu Youth Coalition in collaboration with Youth Empowerment for Life (YEfL) and Centre for Active Learning and Integrated Development under the Promoting Youth Representation and Citizen Engagement project, which is funded by IBIS in Ghana.
The forum, which brought together District Directors of Education, civil society organisations, amongst other stakeholders, discussed the poor performance of pupils at the basic school level in the Region.
Statistics show that the average pass rate of Basic Education Certificate Examinations’ (BECE) candidates in the Region was 40 per cent compared to the national figure of 50 per cent.
Participants at the forum cited various reasons for the poor performance including failure by most MMDAs to provide financial support to the directorates of education under their jurisdictions to undertake effective supervision of schools.
Other reasons cited were teacher absenteeism or failure to teach even though present at school, failure by most parents to support education of their children and pupils spending time on other things other than their books.
Mr Dery urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education in the Region to work closely with MMDAs to ensure efficiency in education service delivery to improve performance.
He also called on MMDAs to earmark funds to organise pre-mock examinations for BECE candidates as part of efforts to better prepare them for the main examinations for improved performance.
Alhaji Mohammed Haroun, Northern Regional Director of Education, commended MMDAs for providing educational infrastructure but urged them to do more by providing financial support to the directorates of education to enhance their activities.
Mr Salifu Saeed, Northern Regional Minister, whose speech was read on his behalf, assured that government would provide the needed resources to improve education in the Region, calling on parents to also support education of their children.
Mr Clement Boateng, Project Officer of YEfL, said the youth groups would engage the Regional Planning Committee to factor issues identified at the forum in the Medium Term Development Plans to be developed and implemented from 2018 to 2021 to improve education outcomes in the Region.
GNA
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