Lack of breakfast lowers concentration of pupils -GES findings

Ho, Oct. 6, GNA - Findings by the Ho Municipal Education Directorate, has revealed that many parents whose children are in low academic performing schools in the municipality do not provide breakfast for their children.

Consequently, such children are inactive in class and hardly concentrate on lessons.

The findings which were made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Monday is titled: "Causes of low academic performance of primary pupils and Junior High School students in the Municipality." The municipality recorded a lower pass of 50.56 per cent in the 2010 Basic Education Certificate Examination from 58.35 per cent in 2009 with most schools outside the Ho Township performing badly. The research noted that less than 50 per cent of pupils in the low performing schools were provided with basic school needs such as uniforms, bags, exercise books, pens and pencils.

The findings claimed that the situation had rendered pupils incapable of following through their studies conscientiously. "The lack of exercise books and writing materials result in the situation where most pupils cannot not do assignments in class and become onlookers or bystanders," Mr Emmanuel Keteku, Municipal Director of Education told the GNA in an interview.

He described the situation as very worrisome and advised parents to show more interest in the education of their children and provide them with their basic needs to make them enjoy learning.

Mr Keteku asked parents to regularly interact with teachers of their children and involve themselves in the work of Parent Teacher Associations and School Management Committees.

He urged teachers in low performing schools to buck-up and ensure that their pupils understand their lessons. Mr Keteku asked teachers to use humour and what he called "positive reinforcement", to arouse the interest of their pupils and also endeavour to complete their syllabuses in time to improve the chances of the school children passing examinations.