Educationist calls for stakeholder intervention in Volta Region

Ho, April 21, GNA - Mr Godson Agbanyo, an Assistant Director of Education at the Volta Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service, on Monday called for a quick stakeholders' intervention to arrest the poor performance at the basic school level in the region. He said the intervention should tackle teacher performance, parental commitment, availability of resources, monitoring and community participation.

Mr Agbanyo was speaking to the GNA during his rounds to gauge the conduct of the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) which commenced throughout the country on Monday.

Around 26, 517 pupils from the 15 districts in the region are listed to take the examination as against about 25,024 candidates last year. Mr Agbanyo said national comparative analysis of results suggested that the Volta Region was "lagging behind" but could not immediately provide the standings of the other regions.

Volta Regional performance table put pass in 2007 at 49.4 percent. Only 111 had aggregate six, while 1,504 had between aggregate seven and 15, 4,968, between aggregate 16 and 24 and 5,885 got between aggregate 25 to 30 with total passes being 12,468.

Krachi West District topped the performance list with 67 percent score, but recorded zero in the aggregate six category. Ho Municipal, which was second with 67 percent score, however recorded 43 aggregate 6.

The poorest performing district was North-Tongu, 21.9 percent pass. The table showed that six schools failed in all subjects, three in Ho Municipal Area and three in the Kadjebi District.

Togbe Dzidoah, Regional Public Relations said authorities in education in the region were liaising with institutions concerned to tackle educational performance in the region.

The first day of the five-day exams had been smooth with no recorded incidents.