Meeting identifies challenges of education

Busunya (B/A) Jan. 13, GNA - A school performance appraisal meeting, aimed at identifying challenges militating against the development of education has been held in the Busunya Circuit of the Nkoranza District in Brong-Ahafo.

School headmasters and members and executives of School Management Committees and Parent-Teacher Associations, chiefs and opinion leaders attended the meeting.

Mr Opoku Ampoh, Busunya Circuit Supervisor announced that the Busunya Roman Catholic Junior Secondary School (JSS) placed first in the circuit with 90 percent passes in the 2004 Basic Education Certificate Examination, as against 43 percent it obtained last year. Akumdwa Local Authority JSS took the last position in the District with six percent passes.

Mr. Ampoh expressed concern about the poor standard of education in the area and called on the parents to collaborate with teachers to improve the performance of the students.

Mr. Ampoh advised parents to monitor the movements of their children to ensure that they did not follow bad peer groups as that could lead them into engaging in social vices.

The Reverend Kubi Asuamah Yeboah, District Assistant Director in- charge of School Management, who presided, appealed to the people to live in harmony with teachers and encourage them in their work.

Rev. Yeboah appealed to them to provide the teachers with accommodation so that they would not refuse postings to the communities. He asked parents to also provide their children with their basic school needs to sustain their interests in education and to prevent them from indulging in undesirable practices to be able to obtain such needs.

Participants at the forum realized that teenage pregnancy was a major problem facing students at Bonte-Bomiri as an average of about four girls get pregnant in every school year.

At Akrudwa No. 2, Fiema and Bonte-Bomiri, the students refuse to go to school during the tobacco planting and harvesting seasons as their parents engage them on their farms.