The Upper East Regional Directorate of Education is instituting a mock examination for the final year students of Junior High Schools in the Municipality, as part of measures to improve upon the results of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Region.
The Regional Director of Education, Mr Fabian Belieb, announced this in a speech read for him by a Deputy Director of Education, Mr Joachim Akagre, at the National Catholic Education Week celebration held in Bolgatanga at the weekend.
The week-long celebration, which was under the theme, "The Catholic Identity in the School: The Role of the Teacher", was aimed at reminding catholic teachers of their role in instilling catholic identity, which was the cardinal principle in imbibing good and high moral standards in children.
The Regional Director of Education indicated that some years back, Catholic schools used to top in academic work and was also the well-behaved and disciplined schools, but of late it was not so.
He challenged Catholic school teachers to revisit those golden days by exhibiting the Catholic virtues such as hard work, honesty, objectivity and loyalty to duty, for the school children to emulate them to become responsible leaders.
Mr Belieb suggested to the management of Catholic schools to always set a common examination periodically to the schools, to create competition to help raise academic standards.
He also stressed on the need for the teachers to teach moral education as part of their lessons.
He commended the Catholic Church for its role in education, especially in the three northern regions, and urged the church to continue to complement Government's efforts in education.
In a welcome address, the Chairman of the Catholic Unit Teachers Association (CUTA), Mr Stanley P. N. Agame, said the Catholic Education Unit, Bolgatanga, has nine primary schools with kindergartens attached, and four Junior High Schools with a population of 4000 pupils and students.
He indicated that this year, the school absorbed two new schools, including the Saint Joseph's Primary and JHS and Soe and Maurice Brown Primary at Zaurungu in the Region.
He stated that as Catholic teachers, they had a Herculean task to perform by exhibiting high moral values and ensuring the good upbringing of the school children.
He urged his colleagues to instil moral discipline in the children by teaching the Catholic doctrines, and also set good moral standard for them to emulate.
Mr John Brown Chiravira, Circuit Supervisor of Education in charge of the Bolgatanga Central "A", asked teachers to see their profession as a vocation and a call to duty and not to rely on checks and balances mounted out by the Educational Directorate.
He appealed to teachers and people who have been brought up through the Catholic Education Units and other training fields to also contribute their quota to the development of the Units.
As part of the week's celebration, the school children went on a float, played football gala and participated in a quiz.
In the quiz positions, the first, second and third positions went to "Saint Charles Primary", "Saint Peter and Paul Primary" and "Saint John Primary Schools" respectively.
In the JHS level, Sacred Heart JHS emerged first. Saint John JHS and Saint Louis JHS schools took the second and third positions respectively.
In the football gala, Saint Charles Primary emerged first in the primary school levels, whilst Saint John JHS became first in the JHS.
The winning schools were presented with reading and exercise books, pens and mathematical sets.