Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah, MP for Ellembelle
Member of Parliament for Ellembelle Constituency, Emmanuel Armah Kofi-Buah has indicated that he was prioritizing education in his constituency to develop quality human capital to contribute to development in the area.
He, therefore, approved a budget of GHC33,600 for all ongoing academic activities during this period been organized in the constituency in collaboration with the District Education Directorate.
Presenting the cheque to the Ellembelle District Education Director, Peter Ackah Blay-Kwasi, the MP said he will leave no stone unturned to achieve this crucial task having identified education as the bedrock for development.
Kofi-Buah stated that the reason for the visit was primarily to familiarize himself with academic activities in the constituency and to find out how best he could help in developing the human capital for the constituency.
In collaboration with the District Education Directorate, the MP has fashioned out alternative education programmes to assist existing government programmes been implemented in Ellembelle.
He has been credited for facilitating the organization of an ongoing mock examination for pupils writing their final year examination at the basic level following the discovery that the constituency was under performing.
He has also adopted free vacation classes as an alternative measure introduced to keep in the classroom all double track students in his constituency currently on three months vacation.
These programmes outlined, the lawmaker said, could not have been carried out successfully without the able support of the District Education Directorate, one of the critical partners assisting him to champion the development of education in Ellembelle.
He described the partnership as strategic and timely intervention to save the future of children in Ellembelle whose development rest solely with the local authorities including the MP.
"The reason why we are doing this, it is in the interest of our children", he pointed out.
He said the partnership required comparative analysis, review of impact of all ongoing programmes including feed back from the mock examination, and the vacation classes been organized for students in the constituency.
The District Education Director, Peter Ackah Blay-Kwasi, who welcomed the MP to the temporal district education office established ten years ago, explained the impact of all programmes been implemented in the constituency to improve performance of students.
He said results recorded from the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) last year, showed an upward adjustment in terms of improved pergormance from forty five percent (45%) passes to fifty four percent (54%) passes recorded.
Consequently, he said the district was hoping to leapfrog the performance this year from fifty four percent (54%) passes to at least sixty percent (60%) or seventy percent (70%) passes following the intervening programmes implemented.
He said, "Usually when mock is written, people think that the teachers do not mark them, but we have put measures in place to ensure that the teachers mark, analyse and even institute remedial strategies to help the students".
Explaining further, he said "Apart from the mock, we even have a group of examiners we put together to teach the children how to answer questions".
In addition, he said students in the district get the opportunity to write two mock examinations, one conducted by the district assembly and the other by the MP, all aimed at preparing the pupils adequately towards BECE.
He therefore commended the MP for his singular effort to improve education in the district through these social intervention programmes.
