He said the region’s performance in both the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the West African Senior School Certificate Examination has fallen to an unacceptable level and needed urgent and practicable measures to reverse the situation.

Speaking during the Daffiama-Bussie-Issa (DBI) District Education Forum, Alhaji Alhassan wondered why a region that used to be the cradle of education in the country was now struggling at the bottom of the league table.

He said challenges in the education sector was more daunting in the past than today yet students performance in those days was far better than our present times.

“Apportioning blames at this moment is not relevant. What is important is for us to find out what went wrong and fashion out measures to address it in order to improve on education performance in the region”, he said.

The Regional Minister said there is the need to intensify monitoring and supervision in schools to ensure teacher discipline which is key to improving education outcomes.

Mr Imoro Nadi Sanda, District Chief Executive (DCE) for DBI, said performance of children at the BECE level leaves much to be desired, adding that available reports indicate that the district has never recorded a 50 percent pass in the BECE since the District Education Directorate separated itself from the Nadowli District in 2013.

The DCE said the 2017 BECE score of 42 percent was the district best performance ever since 2013, adding that indeed from the analysis and ranking of 2017 BECE results, DBI was last in the region and also occupies 208th position countrywide.

Mr Sanda said the forum was meant to create the opportunity for stakeholders to brainstorm and come out with a strategic plan as to how to reverse the falling standards of education in the district.

Mr Sanda appealed to education stakeholders to use the forum to develop the needed pragmatic measures to address the falling standards of education in the district.“I will like to assure you that we will incorporate the recommendations of the forum into the District Medium Term Development Plan which is currently being prepared”, he said.

Mr Evans Kpebah, the Upper West Regional Director of Education, thanked the Regional Minister for initiating the district education forums as a key step to improving on education performance in the region.

He said DBI was chosen first because it had the lowest education performance in the region.

Madam Juliana Bachor, DBI District Education Director, expressed the hope that the forum would be able to give them practical solutions on how to improve education performance in the district.