Droves of teenagers in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District have fully taken advantage of the Capitation grant under the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) policy to enrol in basic schools specifically primary one, a survey by the Ghana News Agency has revealed.
GNA observed that physiological features of boys and girls (between 13 and 19 years) with deep voice, physical muscles, and higher mental faculty in class one intimidated other children of school going age on the average of five years.
The situation, which could best be described as 'invasion' of primary one by teenagers tends to defeat Government's new policy under the educational reforms.
Under the reforms, formal education starts at age four with two years of kindergarten, nine years of Primary and Junior High School and four years Senior High School education is expected to lay the foundation for literacy and numeracy.
Mrs Helena Arkoh, Awutu-Effutu-Senya District Director of Education who confirmed GNA's observation, however described it as challenges facing the grant instead of problems and urged primary one teachers and heads of basic schools to be extra vigilant.
"We are monitoring the challenges to ensure that no child is disadvantaged, intimidated and hindered in any form at school," Mrs Arkoh added.
She spoke to the GNA at Winneba after the presentation of furniture, bundles of roofing sheets and over 300 bags of cement worth 400 million cedis to some basic schools in the Effutu Constituency.
Mr Samuel Owusu-Agyei, Deputy Minister of Health and Member of Parliament for the area made the presentation from his share of the Assemblies' Common Fund.
The beneficiary schools were; Winneba District Council Junior Secondary School (JSS), Presbyterian Primary School, Catholic Primary, DON Bosco JSS, Essuekyir JSS, Winneba Methodist JSS, Gyahadze JSS, Winneba Anglican Primary, Anglican JSS and A.M. Zion JSS.
Mr Owusu-Agyei said the presentation was in fulfilment of a pledge to educational institutions in the constituency last year.
He announced that a contract for the construction of 400-million cedis place of convenience for Winneba Senior Secondary School had been awarded in addition to a 10 million-cedi sports promotion package for schools in the area.
Mr Owusu-Agyei also announced scholarship awards for three brilliant but needy children at Gyahadze JSS who excelled in last year's Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) to enter Senior Secondary School.
He pointed out that the grant and Ghana School Feeding Project were part of the Government's intervention to promote human resource development of the country through education.
Mrs Cecilia Kwakye-Coffie, Headmistress of Winneba Senior Secondary School and Mrs Georgina Asamoah, member of the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme expressed appreciation to Mr Owusu-Agyei for the presentation.
They advised the teachers, pupils and students to utilise the items to improve the standard of teaching and learning in the district.