Parents Ditch Public Schools

Parents of children of school going age in the Volta Region are increasingly choosing private schools over public ones due to a fall in the standard of teaching in public schools in the region, statistics have shown.

While the general enrolment rate (GER) decreased sharply in public schools in the region in the 2014/15 and 2015/16 academic years, there was a marginal increase in the enrolment rate in private schools in the region within the same period.

Total enrolment at the kindergarten level increased by 4.17% between 2014/15 and 2015/16 academic years, while the GER registered a decrease of 14.70% between the same periods.

At the primary level, enrolment in schools recorded a 5.78% decrease between 2014/15 and 2015/16 academic years and GER also decreased by 3.90%.

The case is not any different at the junior high school level as enrolment at the JHS level registered 4.85% decrease between 2014/15 and 2015/16 academic years.

The Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Letsa, revealed this at the maiden Volta Regional Coordinating Council (VRCC) meeting with municipal district chief executives (MDCEs), coordinating directors, presiding members and heads of department from decentralised and non-decentralised organisations.

The minister expressed his worry about the phenomenon, saying the figures are 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 the public sector.

He also attributed the fall in enrolment in public schools to “parents realising the need to give their children a good foundation during their early childhood development stage since comparatively, better teaching and learning environment exist in the private sector than the public ones, for example, better infrastructure and care from the teachers.”

The senior high school level, however, registered a 2.63% increase in enrolment between 2014/15 and 2015/16 academic years though the percentage of girls' enrolment decreased by 0.5% within the same periods.

The region could also not meet its regional pass rate of 50%, as the 2015/16 academic year rather saw a decrease in the regional pass rate which dropped from 42% in the 2014/2015 academic year to 32.5%.

In view of these, Dr Letsa proposed that all municipal and district assemblies liaise with stakeholders in their respective assemblies to improve upon the current state of education in the public schools in the region.

 From Gibril Abdul Razak, Ho [email protected]