About 70 % of BECE candidates cannot read – GES
About 70 per cent of candidates in the last Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the North Gonja District could not read due to teacher absenteeism and lack of text books and other teaching aids.
Mr Chipurah Iddrisu, Acting North Gonja Distric Director of Ghana Education Service, told the GNA in an interview at Daboya that there was the need to post teachers into the area to fill the classrooms.
He said, “The reason for students’ inability to read is due to the many challenges the district is facing. These challenges include limited teachers, teacher absenteeism, deprived nature of the district, lack of text books, and teaching and learning materials”.
“Access routes to the various schools are very poor to the extent that they are cut off during the raining season and officials find it difficult to carry out effective monitoring and evaluation,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu said many of the teachers, who were posted to the district, often refused postings due to the deprived nature of the district and that it was making education unattractive in the area.
“As an Acting Director, if I want to visit any school I beg people to help transport me with a motor bike, if I don’t get a bike then the next option is to walk, no matter how far the distance may be,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu said the District with four circuits namely Daboya, Bawena, Lingbinsi and Mankarigu had only 91 teachers taking care of students’ population of about 9,908 comprising of kindergarten, primary and junior high schools.
He said out of the total teacher population in the North Gonja District, 51 were trained while 40 were untrained and appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to post more teachers to the area to facilitate quality teaching and learning as well as improve upon BECE results.
Mr Iddrisu said the phenomenon explained the poor performance of the district at the recent BECE. Only three schools from the district were able to record above 30 per cent while the rest of the five schools scored below seven percent.
He said 90 per cent of students of the Saint Peters Junior High School (JHS) at Lingbinsi passed, the District Assembly JHS at Daboya recorded 45 percent pass e while the Asafo JHS had 34 per cent passes.
The Wasipe-Wura Anyame Kabassagya II, Paramount chief of the Wasipe Traditional Area, appealed to parents to make the education of their children a priority by re-affirming their commitment to actively participate in the school’s management by helping to reconstitute the Parent /Teachers Association.
He commended the district assembly for its contribution to education and appealed to the government, local and international partners to support the new District to improve education.
Mr James Tiyari Moari, Coordinating Director of the District, said the assembly had spent GH¢273,177 to rehabilitate and also built new schools in the area to improve enrollment.
He said as part of efforts by the government towards providing a holistic education, the district had been selected to benefit from the first 50 Senior High Schools to be built.
Source: GNA