Chief calls for review of wholesale promotion in primary schools

Larteh, Oct. 4, GNA - Osabarima Asiedu Okoo Ababio 111, Chief of Larteh, has appealed to the Ghana Education Service to review the policy of wholesale promotion of pupils at the basic level. He said the poor performance of students at the Basic Education Certificate Examination could be traced to the abysmal standard of primary six pupils who graduate to JHS on wholesale promotion. "We can say that majority of the primary six pupils cannot even write the names of their schools, neither can they express themselves in the English language, which is our medium of expression". Osabarima Ababio-Okoo was speaking at the Odwira durbar and fund raising in aid of the completion of nurses' quarters at Larteh on Saturday.

He said the alarming decline in education standards was as a result of indiscipline in the localities and appealed to churches, educationists, politicians and other stakeholders to help tackle the problem.

The Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, commended the chief and people in a speech read for him for taking the initiative to provide decent accommodation for health practitioners in the community. He said the government had taken several measures to ensure food security in the country and these had resulted in increased food production and a consistent lowering of food prices over the past eighteen months. Mr Baba Ahmed Jamal, the Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, appealed to the chiefs and elders of the Akuapem area to help the assembly to stop wasting money on maintaining security and re-direct the resources to the development of the district. He said the number of chieftaincy disputes in the Akuapem North District was alarming and this had resulted in the assembly spending large sums of money on security. He said the government respected the role of chiefs as development partners and would do everything possible to ensure that unity and peace prevailed in the chieftaincy institution.