ECG asked to exempt schools in disconnection exercise
The Central Regional Director of Education, Mr David Afram has appealed to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), to exclude second cycle schools in the region from the on-going disconnection exercise.
He said such an exercise would disrupt academic work.
He admitted that many of the schools had accumulated bills but the ECG should allow them some time to settle their indebtedness to the company.
Mr Afram made the appeal during a briefing at a Regional Coordinating Council meeting held in Cape Coast.
The meeting, the first, since the Regional Minister, Mr Kweku Rickett-Hagan assumed office, was attended by Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives and Heads of Department.
Mr Afram said the region had seen tremendous improvement in education but the numbers does not correspond with the required number of teachers as there are a total of 3,334 vacancies, affecting academic work.
Giving a break-down, he said, the vacancies for kindergarten are 859 teachers, 591 for the primary level, 313 for junior high schools, 458 for senior high schools whilst a total of 1,113 non-teaching staff are needed.
On the Basic Education Certificate Examination results, the Regional Director said a total of 45,531 candidates participated in the 2015 examination but only 34.15 per cent passed, which is far below the national percentage.
He however expressed the hope that there would be some improvement in the 2016 results.
Mr Afram also appealed to the government and Ghana Education Trust fund to make money available to help complete the more than 41 abandoned projects dotted across senior high schools in the region.
He commended the government for donating vehicles to some schools in the region and asked that many more schools be included in the next consignment.
The Regional Director of Urban Roads, Mr Mawutor Kofi Ketesyor said everything is being done to meet the schedule for the asphalt overlay of 25- kilometre- roads in the Cape Coast Metropolis.
He said the GH¢32.7 million Government funded project is to give the Metropolis face lift and enhance vehicular movement.
Mr Ketesyor said in addition to the original project, the University of Cape Coast and the Abura community had been included and would have 2.2 and 2.8 kilometres of their roads tarred.
He announced that the physical works on the Elmina Benya Lagoon Bridge is about 93 per cent complete and all is being done to have it opened by August.
Dr Samuel Kwashie, Regional Director of Health, said under the Youth Enterprise Support Programme a total of 1,028 community health nurses have been trained in the region and would soon be deployed to the various health facilities.
He expressed concern about the indebtedness of the National Health Insurance Scheme to many of the health facilities in the region, which is crippling the activities the facilities.
According to him Dunkwa-on-offin Hospital alone has about 14 months outstanding re-imbursement while others have from eight to 10 months outstanding bills.
Dr Kwashie expressed concern about the slight increase in maternal deaths in the region from 64 cases in 2014 to 67 cases last year and attributed the situation to inadequate skilled midwives as well as delays by some expectant mother to visit health facilities.
He said many of the skilled midwives are on retirement and have not been replaced but gave the assurance that a lot more would be trained.
He said many of the maternal deaths were due to bleeding and pregnancy induced hypertension and advised expectant mothers to always visit health facilities for the needed medical checks.
Source: GNA