MCE orders the prosecution of video operators for admitting pupils

Suhyen (E/R), Sept. 27, GNA - The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Nana Adjei Boateng, has directed the Assemblyman for the Suhyen Electoral Area to report for prosecution any video house owner in the town who admits pupils and children under 18 years.

He has also urged the elders of the town to ensure that children are not allowed to attend wake keeping and all funerals beyond 6 p.m. Nana Adjei Boateng gave the order at Suyhen, near Koforidua, on Friday at a public forum on "Providing resources for child development in communities", organised by the Eastern Regional Secretariat of the Ghana National Commission on Children (GNCC).

The Suhyen community, which presented 42 pupils for this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) placed last out of the 58 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) in the New Juaben Municipality. Only one pupil from the Suhyen Local Authority (L/A) JSS scored aggregate seven, two scored aggregate 16 to 24 and 20 pupils had between aggregates 25 and 30.

Nana Adjei Boateng appealed to parents in the area to avoid engaging the services of their children to sell on market days instead of going to school.

He invited teachers, elders, parents and pupils in the community to give reasons for the poor academic performance of the pupils, even though the Municipal Assembly had provided the necessary infrastructure for academic work and a philanthropist and Managing Director of Messrs Kama Pharmacy Limited had supported the school with some books.

A spokesman for the chief, Opanyin Yaw Sasu, attributed the poor performance of the children to the lack of co-operation and apathy on the part of parents in the township on the education of their children. He said most of the pupils did not study at home and rather they spent their leisure hours at wake-keepings, video houses, concerts and dances.

Opanyin Sasu said some parents also switch on their television sets every night and put them outside for the children to watch till late in the night when those children should be learning.

The Assistant Head teacher of the Suhyen JSS, Ms Felicia Opoku Dede, said most parents in the town do not pay the school fees of their wards and even do not provide them with the required learning materials. She said when the pupils are sent home for their fees, they spent weeks in the house and yet most of them return without the fees.

Ms Esther Bekoe, Acting Head teacher of Suhyen Methodist Primary School, said often, parents in the town withdraw children who perform well at the primary school to schools in Koforidua.

She said those left do not face any competition and so did not put in much effort into their studies.

Ms Bekoe said even when teachers try to organise extra classes for the pupils to raise their standards, the children absent themselves because their parents had made them to believe that extra classes are optional.

The Girl's Prefect of L/A JSS, Miss Mamley Pokua, who spoke on behalf of the pupils, agreed that they (the pupils) do not learn after school.

She said some of the parents in the town preferred to take their wards to farm before the child goes to school and sometimes the children become so tired farm that they dodge classes.

Miss Pokua said some mothers also prepare their supper too late in the night that after eating the food; the students go to bed without learning.