Education Directorate launches 'Quality Education: All Hands on Deck'

Mrs. Betty Mould, Education Minister

It is no more news that  75% of candidates who sat for the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) in the Ahanta West district failed their papers.

What this means is that only 25% of the entire candidates who sat for the examination passed their papers, but with low grades.

This is unprecedented in the history of the academic calendar of the District.

This sordid development has therefore, compelled the District Directorate to launch a programme to address the falling standard of education.

Dubbed 'Quality Education: All Hands on Deck', the programme seeks to bring parents, teachers and stakeholders to a roundtable meeting to find solutions to the problem.

The District Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr. Eric Obese Amponsah, who launched the programme, conceded that the performance of the candidates in the BECE was appalling, hence the launch of the programme to address it.

He said with the launch of the programme, the Directorate hoped to reverse the anomaly to an appreciable level.

The GES Director specifically called on parents to endeavor to suspend their pleasures for the sake of their ward.

The Executive Director of Support Foundation, Mrs. Henriette Van Vielden, on her part, called on teachers to be more dedicated to their work, and help the pupils to obtain good grades.

That apart, parents should also endeavour to do whatever they could, in spite of problems they encounter, if it demanded their selling personal belongings to educate their wards, since they were the future leaders of the family.

The District Assembly, which pledged its support for the programme, said it was going to implement its bye-law which forbids pupils and students from staying outside late into the night.

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Joseph Dofoyena, said the Assembly was collaborating with chiefs and assembly members to ensure that pupils do not stay late outside. He said any pupils caught flouting the bye-law would attract the wrath of the Assembly.

According to critics, the falling standard of education in the District begun some ten years ago, and the GES Directorate has failed to marshall 'weapons' to address the problem.

The critic put the blame squarely on the doors of the teachers, who even speak vernacular with the pupils in the classrooms.

However, other critics disagree, saying the blame should be put on the doorsteps of the parents, who fail to give good parenting to their wards.

The critics say since the pupils spend fewer hours with their teachers, the latter could not be blamed much for the falling standard in education.