SHAMA RESIDENTS TO SUPPORT EDUCATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE (PAGE 20, JAN 26, 2010)

THE people of the Shama Traditional Area in the Western Region have decided to contribute GH¢1 per head annually to support the provision of educational infrastructure in the Shama District.
The decision followed the poor academic performance of junior high school (JHS) pupils in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the last three years.
It was realised at a stakeholders’ meeting at Shama that poor school infrastructure and lack of parental control were among the major problems that had contributed to the abysmal performance of pupils in basic schools in the district.
To reverse the trend, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Ms Emelia Arthur, convened an emergency meeting to create a platform for the people to discuss ways of improving academic standards.
It came to light that 1,116 candidates out of the total of 1,689 the district presented for the BECE in 2009 failed.
A total of 573 candidates passed the examination with most of them securing very poor grades that would make it difficult for them to enter senior high schools (SHS).
According to the stakeholders, if nothing concrete was done about it schools in the area would see 100 per cent failures.
Most of the participants were of the view that discipline had broken down as schoolchildren were always seen along the beaches, playing until late in the evening instead of studying.
It also came to light that a large number of the schoolchildren were left in the care of their grandparents who had little control over what their adolescent children did, especially at night.
The DCE said such unhealthy developments were an affront to the better Ghana agenda of the government.
She said her outfit would do everything possible to ensure that the schoolchildren were in the classrooms at the times they were expected to be there and also offered quality education by the teachers.
Ms Arthur stated that even though the task seemed to be an arduous one, with the support of the chiefs and opinion leaders, the assembly would reverse the trend.