Don't hold best teachers award -DCE tells education directorate

Mankranso (Ash), Nov. 24, GNA - Mr Kwaku Obeng Boateng, Ahafo-Ano South District Chief Executive, has ordered District Directorate of Education to withhold the Best Teachers Award ceremony until the standard of education in the district improved. He could not understand why for two consecutive years, the district had occupied the 109th position nationwide at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

"This state of affairs cannot continue and until there is marked improvement in the standard of education in the district you should not organise any teachers' awards ceremony," the DCE ordered. Mr Boateng was speaking at the distribution of learning materials made up of school bags, exercise books, pens, rulers, erasers, wheel chairs and clutches to needy pupils drawn from the Mankranso and Kunsu circuits at Mankranso on Wednesday.

The learning materials were disbursed under the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the Department for International Development (DFID) scholarship package through the District Assembly. He announced that the District Assembly had invested 10 billion cedis in education in the District through the Assembly, the Otumfuo Education Fund and from other donors.

Mr Stephen Balado Manu, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ahafo-Ano South, advocated the re-introduction of the cane in schools to salvage the very poor academic performance of pupils in the District.

Besides improving the academic performance, he said the cane could also instil discipline in the pupils, pointing out that the performance of the district in the BECE for two consecutive years was unacceptable. Mr Balado Manu said the situation was worrying and stated: "The cane must come back to the classroom, I am prepared to defend it anytime".

He called on all stakeholders in education in the district to join hands to remedy the situation before it got worse.