Parents in the Bongo District of the Upper East Region were on Tuesday called upon to monitor their children’s progress in school to improve on the declining standards of education in the district.
Mr Clement Akugre, Bongo District Chief Executive, who made the call at the Schools’ Performance Appraisal Meeting held in the district, said it was very disappointing and disturbing the poor performance of schools in the district especially at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) level.
He said as parents, if they monitored their children effectively, it would help put them on track especially if the children were not studying.
“This, coupled with the efforts of teachers would help curb the falling standard of education in the district,” he said.
According to him, the only legacy parents could bequeath their children is education and entreated them to show a greater interest in their children’s education.
Mr Akugre stated that despite government’s efforts at providing educational infrastructure among other things, the standard of education in the district kept declining with the worst being recorded in the 2010 BECE.
He called on stakeholders at the meeting to offer suggestions to improve upon the falling standard of education in the area.
Mr Francis Agyere, District Director of Education, said the results for the BECE had steadily declined from 2006 till date and so the education directorate had instituted various measures including mock examinations, extra classes, quizzes and debates for schools as well as reviving the Science Technology and Mathematics Programme in the area to encourage pupils to study.
Other interventions, he mentioned, include creating of additional number of circuits in the district.
He said stringent measures had also been put in place to deal with those teachers who were not performing efficiently.
Mr Agyere said the district presented 1,400 candidates for the BECE last academic year and only 28 per cent of the number passed and expressed optimism that the intervention programmes put in place would help address the education problem in the area.
He also reiterated the need for parents to play a complementary role by ensuring that their children were punctual at school.