The National Youth Authority (NYA) has awarded 121 best performing junior high school students within Wa Municipality as part of its mandate in promoting youth development in education.

The awardees received educational materials such as school bags, pens, exercise books and jotters as well as copies of the National Youth Policy Document as their prizes.

The awards were given out a summit organised by the NYA to award best performing students in form one and form three from each government school in the Municipality.

The summit also saw the official launching of the 6th Edition of the Upper West Youth Achievers’ Awards which is slated to take place in November 1.

Mr Mumuni Sulemana, Regional Director of the NYA noted that the Authority believes that education is the bed rock of society.

He said encouraging young people to be serious with their education could bring about positive change in society.

“The award is going to be an annual affair and NYA is planning to improve on the package to include laptops and other modern learning facilities,” he said.

The NYA Director noted that the Youth Achievers Awards which would come off in November would be looking forward to awarding some distinguish personalities in the special award category.

They include Former President Jerry John Rawlings, Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom, 2012 Presidential candidate for the Progressive People’s Party, Alhaji Alhassan Bin Salih, a former member of Council of State and Dr Daniel Debagah, Dean in charge of the Wa campus of the University for Development Studies.

Mr Issahaku Nuhu Putiaha, Wa Municipal Chief Executive said the Municipality is currently not doing well in Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) performance as it declined from 75 per cent in 2011 academic year to 45 per cent in 2014.

He therefore commended the NYA for the efforts being put in place to encourage students to learn more to pass, saying it would help to improve on the BECE performance.

The MCE said the assembly has enhanced monitoring through its inspectorate division including teacher rationalisation.

Mr Putiaha commended the introduction of a uniform promotion examination for all basic schools in the municipality at the beginning of the academic year and charged teachers to put in their best to assist the students to succeed.