Parents in Volta Region prefer private schools – Dr. Letsa

It has emerged that parents in the Volta Region prefer enrolling their wards into private schools than to public schools.

The Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa observed that while general enrolment at public schools decreased by 14.70 percent, there has been a sharp increment at the private schools.

Presenting the Regional Coordinating Council's report at the first general meeting today[Thursday], Dr Letsa said the trends in enrollment indicates a seeming lack of confidence in the public schools, a situation he insisted needed to be addressed with firmness.

“More parents enrolled their children in private schools instead of the Public Schools. An indication that parents are interested in giving quality education to their wards as it is believed that teaching and learning in the private schools is of better quality than that of public sector”

He also noted that the general performance of the region at the Basic Education Certificate Examination ( BECE) has seen no significant improvement with the region performing below average.

“It is informative to note that the Regional Pass rate for BECE has still not hit 50% or above as targeted. It has however improved over the worse scenario of 27% which was experienced in 2012. In 2016, the average pass rate was 32.5% which represented a reduction of 9.5% of the 2015 performance which stood at 42%” he stated

The regional coordinating council's general meetings are held at least twice a year to take stock of the region's performance in the areas of Security, Health, Education, and Agriculture among others and chart a course of development of the region.

He therefore charged the various stakeholders in the region including the Municipal and District Assemblies to effectively collaborate in resuscitating the academic performance in the region which is taking a nosedive.

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By: King Norbert Akpablie/citifmonline.com/Ghana