Two major churches in the Volta Region has said they would support the Rotary Club of Ho to undertake significant projects towards reversing the dwindling of the educational standards in the area.

The Moderator of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, the Right Reverend Francis Amenu, and that of the Global Evangelical Church, Rt. Rev. Dr. Edem Kwaku Tettey, pledged their churches’ support to the educational initiatives and projects of the Club.

The agreements were made following discussions by Mr Bright Dey, a Rotarian, who is also the Planning Officer of the Volta Regional Education Directorate, and Mr Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah, President of the Rotary Club of Ho,with the Christian leaders.

Mr Dogbegah said with the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service, the Rotary Club would institute an award scheme to stimulate community interest in education and to improve pupil and teacher performance.

They would also establish reading clinics, which would be stocked with about 200,000 books. However, the people would be encouraged to contribute to the project by purchasing at least one book, which would go for GH¢5.00.

Additionally, they would recruit volunteer teachers for the pupils and set up a monitoring group to ensure effective supervision and assessment of performance.

The recruitment exercise would start at the end of August.

The Churches would raise funds as part of their contribution.

Mr Dogbegah said the Educational Project is under the theme: “Making Education Everybody’s Business”. This is in line with the 2014/2015 theme of the Rotary Club of Ho; “Lighting up Education in the Volta Region.”

He said Rotary’s six areas of focus were Peace and Conflict Resolution; Disease Prevention and Treatment; Water and Sanitation; Maternal and Child Health; Basic Education and Literacy; as well as Economic and Community Development.

He expressed dissatisfaction about the consistent poor performance of pupils at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) level since 2009.

The average percentage pass of the region fell from 48.8% in 2009 to 43.7% in 2010.

It dropped further to 38% in 2011 and further fell to27% in 2012.

However, their performance gained some marginal increase of 39% last year.

The causes for the abysmal performance as stated at a Stakeholders’ forum, organized by the Rotary Club, earlier this year, include teacher shortage and absenteeism, poor reading and learning habits, as well as lack of effective supervision.