More than 200,000 children drop out of school every year at the junior and senior secondary school level, Mr Ernest Akubuor Debrah, Brong Ahafo Regional Minister said on Monday. He said the consequences were the increases in social vices such as teenage pregnancy, child labour and the phenomenon of street children.
The Regional Minister was speaking at the launch of the 13th annual week celebration of Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) in Sunyani. The week is being celebrated under the theme: "Ghana in search of relevant quality education, a second look at the reform programme."
Mr Debrah noted with concern that "after one and a half decades of implementing educational reforms meant to improve the quality of education, the performance of pupils in basic schools have reached an alarming level with an appreciable number scoring zero per cent in the BECE (Basic Education Certificate Examinations)."
This was not very encouraging, he said, noting that though some gains had been made, the failures and bottlenecks seemed to affect the proper functioning of the system.
Mr Debrah commended owners of private schools for their bold efforts at founding and funding such institutions and emphasised that it was the government's strong belief in private sector development that made it to set up Private School Unit at Ministry of Education to ensure effectiveness in the handling of such schools.
The Regional Minister noted that the excellent results obtained by private schools in the BECE showed the commitment and dedication to duty on the part of the teachers. "I would, however, advise you to avoid complacency and work harder than before to maintain the high standards you have set for yourselves", he said.
Mr Debrah exhorted the school heads to continue to check bad behaviour among the children "since academic excellence coupled with discipline will earn a private school not only a good name but a handsome reward in the end".
Mrs Akua Debrah, Acting Regional Director of Education, advised private schools to develop a code of ethics to be able to weed out those that were not conforming to the Ghana Education Service guidelines.
Mrs Debrah deplored the practice by some private schools to sack academically poor students because they did not want them to fail the BECE in their schools. "Every child is capable of performing well academically so if we realise that the performance of our pupils is not good, let us try and come out with measures to rectify the situation", she said. "Let us as a group of educators find antidotes to these problems and advise the government for appropriate actions to be taken".
