Private schools in Volta Region entice pupils from public schools

Agate (V/R), Sept 22, GNA - Private basic schools are becoming attractive to parents and pupils in the Volta Region and as a result many public schools are not meeting enrolment figures needed to attract investment in infrastructure.

Mr Joseph Amenowode, the Volta Regional Minister, said this when he visited some basic schools in Goviefe, Agate and Have as part of the "my first day at school" and distribute school uniforms and cups to pupils. "The situation is very serious in my constituency," he told teachers and community leaders at Agate in the Hohoe South constituency. At Goviefe Korwu and Agordome E.P. Primary schools where two classroom blocks had their roofs destroyed and walls crumbling, there were 34 pupils about to be enrolled in kindergarten with 20 others for Primary One.

At Agate, 21 out of 50 pupils expected in Primary One were in school at the time. Mr Amenowode said the situation was a challenge to both teachers and community leaders now that the government was providing free school uniforms, text-books and exercise books as well as one free meal for pupils in an effort to improve enrolments in public schools. He said poor performance by public schools in the Basic Education Certificate Examination accounted for parents' preference for private schools where results were far better even though their teachers were untrained and some being retired trained teachers. Mr Amenowode appealed to the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to help get teachers in public schools to improve on performance. Togbe Adom X of Agate said his elders were equally worried at the poor enrolment in public schools in the community. Togbe Adom, who is a teacher, said he and his elders had met parents on a number of occasions to persuade them to keep their children in the public schools but to no avail. He said parents preferred to send their children to private schools in nearby Kpeve and other urban communities despite the extra cost involved because they were assured of better tuition there.