Hain District Assembly Basic schools need teachers

The Hain Naa, Naa Alhaji Saalifu Dakura IV, has expressed concern over the lack of teachers in his traditional area. He said to help address the situation, pupils had been levied GH¢1.00 each to employ the services of senior high school (SHS) leavers to fill the vacancies.

That, according to him, deprived the pupils from benefitting from the Free and Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) and was also a drain on the resources of parents. 

In his welcome address, during a grand durbar to climax the 16th edition of the Tinmaale Festival of the Chiefs and people of Hain Traditional Area in the Jirapa District of the Upper West Region, Naa Dakura  said the Hain District Assembly Basic schools with an enrolment of 946 pupils had only two teachers.

The festival, which attracted a lot of dignitaries, including tourists, politicians and the clergy, was held on the theme "Youth Empowerment for Sustainable Development of the Han Traditional Area".  Performance of pupils

Naa Dakura said the performance of pupils in school in the area, dropped from the 52 per cent pass  attained during the 2012 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) to 31 per cent last year. 

He, thus, appealed for the posting of more teachers to the school since they had enough accommodation and infrastructure to take care of them.

The Upper West Regional Minister, Mr  Bede Ziedeng, appealed to the youth to take their studies seriously in order to grow up to become responsible citizens and contribute to national development. 

 He regretted that the situation where able-bodied youth left the picking of the shea nut to old women and rushed to urban areas in search for non-existing jobs was disheartening and urged them to use the shea nut industry for poverty alleviation in the area.

 Mr Biedeng said shea nut was in high demand, even outside the country so they should rather stay in the area and make use of the resource which had been freely provided for them. Incentive package

The Jirapa District Chief Executive, Ms Vivien-Nelly Kunko, said the district assembly had instituted an incentive package to deal with the continuous drop of educational standards in the district, indicating that, under the package, any school that obtained a single digit percentage pass in the BECE results, would win an award of GHC500.00 while the student would also be given GHC200.00 

She, therefore, called on all stakeholders in education to realise the importance of education to national development and make conscious effort to reverse the falling trend of education in the district.