Bolga Municipal Chief unhappy with performance in education

Bolgatanga, Oct 12, GNA - Mr Epsona Harry Ayamga, Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), on Monday expressed dissatisfaction with the poor performance by students in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) in the municipality.

He said education took the highest portion of the Assembly's resources in terms provision of classroom blocks, school furniture, teachers' accommodation and financial support to needy students including those with disabilities.

Mr Ayamga said this at the Presidential Town Hall Meeting held in Bolgatanga at the weekend.

He said an additional chunk of resources which was not directly from the Assembly's coffers such as the European Union Micro Projects Programme and the District Wide Assistance Project (DWAP) also contributed. "It is unfortunate that our dividends are not yielding the expected results," he added.

Mr Ayamga proposed a stakeholders' forum in the municipality that would come out with workable and achievable strategies to improve on education and ensure that the area got results from the investments. He said the quest for quality and improved education was not the preserve of teachers and those directly involved in the educational system alone but that parents too had a responsibility to ensure that education was improved.

Mr Ayamga bemoaned recent developments in the municipality where some children walked about aimlessly while others hawked or did menial jobs for a living and said the trend, if not checked immediately, could have dire consequences for the future of the children and the nation as a whole. On sanitation, the MCE said in spite of the combined efforts of the Assembly and Zoomlion to keep the municipality clean, the negative attitudes of some members of the public were affecting the assembly. He said considering the amount of money it devoted each month to the management of waste in the area, the continued indiscriminate dumping of refuse, the indiscipline associated with the placement of structures along the streets and water ways negatively affected the assembly. To stem this phenomenon, Mr Ayamga said the assembly was in the process of constituting a task force to ensuring that some sanity prevailed in the municipality.

He said the assembly was ready to partner relevant development agencies, community based organizations and non-governmental organizations to sustain and deepen its efforts at creating a stable economy. He therefore called on chiefs, opinion leaders, civil servants, the business community and well meaning citizens in the area to support the assembly to achieve its objective of giving the people quality standard of living.