Education ‘dying’ in Mepe

The academic performance of students of Junior High Schools (JHSs) in Mepe in the North Tongu District of the Volta region has been on the decline since 2011 to 2014.

And what has accounted for this situation, Today gathered, has primarily been as a result of the lack of coordination between parents, teachers and students. Today established that for the past two years the performance of public schools in Mepe in Basic Education Certificate Examination BECE has been abysmal.

For instance, in 2012, 2013 and 2014 BECE candidates in public schools in Mepe scored 20, 15 and 10 per cents respectively, as against the average North Tongu District academic performance rate of 31 per cent in 2012 and 21 per cent in 2013. Interestingly, information available to Today indicated that no candidate from all the six public schools from Mepe Traditional Area scored aggregates between six and twelve in the BECE results which were released by the West African Examination Council (WAEC) in 2014.

These underperforming public schools, the paper gathered, included Mepe Presbyterian Junior High School, Mepe Roman Catholic Junior High School, District Assembly (DA) Junior High School, Adexor Kpordzi Junior High School and Dadome Junior High School.

Today was also reliably informed that out of a total of 75 candidates from Presbyterian Junior High School who took part in the BECE in 2014, only 4 candidates passed their examination while 71 failed completely.

The situation was not different from Mepe Roman Catholic Junior High School where out of 68 candidates who wrote the BECE, only 24 passed. The remaining 44, Today discovered, however, performed poorly in the same examination.

The story was the same at the DA Junior High School as only two candidates passed their examination from a total number of about 40 candidates who took part in the BECE.

This paper’s investigations further revealed that majority of final year students in public schools in Mepe after registering with WAEC stopped going to school due to financial constraints facing their parents and guardians.

That worrying situation, the paper learnt, had become a matter of great concern to some opinion leaders in the region, including the Volta Regional Director of Education, Mr. Emmanuel Keteku, and member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu Constituency, who doubles as the deputy Minister of Education, Mr. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Madam Delphia Fafa Agbayi.

These three personalities separately expressed dismay at the poor academic performance in the region over the last three years. For his part, Mr. Ketehu recounted that the region scored 48.8% in 2009; 43.7% in 2010, and; 38% in 2011 as against the average national performance rate of 67%.

He went on to say that the decline of performance in education in the region needed a concerted effort from all stakeholders to put their shoulders on the wheel to reverse the trend.

He therefore appealed to parents to provide their children with basic educational needs, emotional affection and psychological support to help them learn.

The regional education director further urged teachers to use instructional periods well in teaching the pupils so as to help them become responsible citizens in future.

He encouraged the pupils to study hard so that they could pass their examinations successfully.

“It is only when you pass your BECE well that you can further your education to develop your potential and talent to occupy responsible positions even higher than positions we are occupying now,” he advised.

The MP, DCE and Mepe chiefs also expressed their disquiet about the poor performance of the BECE results in the constituency.

The MP on his part attributed the rapid decline in academic performance of the public schools in his area to lack of coordination among parents, teachers and students.

Mr. Ablakwa went on to disclose that his outfit was embarking on a programme to monitor the work of teachers who had deserted their classrooms in the rural areas and were performing other functions.

Such actions by these teachers, he said, had the propensity to deny students the opportunity to acquire quality education.

The deputy minister further mentioned that government had outlined measures to encourage teachers who would perform their duties diligently and with love in such areas to serve as motivation to others.