Legon Head Bemoans High Illiteracy Rate in W/R

The vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah has noted that if the Western Region, where he comes from is to take its rightful place in economic and social advancement, then it has to have the right type of human resource base for the exploitation of its vast natural resources.

According to him, economic development is inextricably linked to human and natural resources, saying people may have all the natural resources necessary for economic and social development, but without the requisite human resources to effectively and sustainably exploit these natural resources, economic and social development cannot take place.

Speaking at the Education Forum organised by the Regional Co-ordinating Council (RCC) in Takoradi last Tuesday, Prof. Addae-Mensah said when it comes to existing, as well as potential natural resources, the Western Region is unsurpassed by any other region in the country.

He mentioned cocoa, rubber plantations, manganese, gold, bauxite and even gas as some of the resources that abound in the region.

Indeed, I can confidently predict that for a long time to come, the survival of Ghana would depend on what the present and subsequent governments would do, and how they would treat the Western Region, he said adding that if the government redirects its economic plans, potential investment in the Western Region alone will be enormous.

He, however, expressed regret that despite all these resources, the standard of education in the region is one of the poorest in the country.

According to him, everybody knows and accepts that the three northern regions are seriously handicapped in almost every human indicator, including education.

"Therefore, if one takes out these three regions, then of the seven remaining regions, the Western Region with all its natural resource endowment, ranks the third highest percentage of illiterates in the country. No matter how one looks at these figures, it gives a lot of cause for concern and suggests that the region has a lot of work to do", he said.

Giving statistics to back his claim, Prof. Addae-Mensah whose speech lasted for nearly two-and-a-half hours said in 1999, for example, of the 22,229 candidates presented by the region for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), only 624 obtained aggregate 6 constituting only 2.8% of the total candidates.

Of this number, as many as 568 or 91% of those with aggregate 6 came from Sekondi-Takoradi and Wassa West districts.

According to him, from 1999 up to date, the remaining districts performed badly with Juabeso Bia, the largest district in the region, scoring zero per cent in the aggregate 6 category.

The Chemistry Professor, whose paper was based on a research work he carried out in the region and other parts of the country, further told the participants that though the official qualifying aggregate for JSS to SSS is 30, with the limited number anybody with aggregate greater than 20 is likely to make it into any Senior Secondary School (SSS) of any description that will enable the child progress any further up the education ladder.

"In the same way no one can make it into any of the country's best 50 schools with an aggregate greater than 9," he added.

This, he argued, means that most of the children from the region would not gain admission to secondary schools.