Mr Kwame Afram Denkyira, Programme Officer for Education at Action Aid Ghana, has said inadequate qualified teachers had contributed to the poor performance of Junior High School students in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Tain District and newly-created Banda District.
He said the students' performance declined from 63 per cent in 2010 to 51 per cent in 2011.
Mr Denkyira said this at the Tain District Parent/Teacher Association (PTA) Network Platform at Nsawkaw in the Tain District.
The programme was jointly undertaken by Action Aid Ghana and Social, Development and Improvement Agency to present their findings on factors affecting quality education in the districts and parliamentary candidates in the area attended.
Mr Denkyira said BECE results in the Tain District in the past had not been consistent because it improved from 37 per cent in 2005 to 41 per cent in 2006, 42 per cent in 2007 to 44 per cent in 2008 and declined to 36 per cent in 2009.
He appealed to the government to invest more in education to guarantee human resources for the nation and the need for the implementation of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) at the basic level.
"Children's right to education is among the fundamental human rights enshrined in all international documents which have been rectified by the state and in the 1992 Constitution," he said.
Mr Ibrahim Ahmed, Member of Parliament for Tain and NDC parliamentary candidate for Bandam, said ensuring quality education had been a major concern in the constituency.
He said land had been acquired in every community to construct teachers’ bungalows and well furnished to attract more teachers and retain them in the area.
Mr Ahmed said 20 teachers in the area would be sponsored to the university to improve teaching and motivate teachers to accept postings to the district.
Mr Paul Amoh Paul, Secretary of the PTA Network, said most of the teachers in 13 out of the 15 communities in the district visited were not trained and only two had received two weeks of training against the policy of a three-week training required.
Mr Amoh said out of the 183 teachers made up of 53 women and 130 men, 74 of them were pupil teachers and most of them did not attend classes because of irregular payment of their allowances.
He appealed to the parliamentary candidates to ensure strict implementation of the policy to provide training as required and ensure payment of their allowances to ensure punctuality in schools.
Mr Amoh urged the district assemblies to implement sponsorship schemes for teacher trainees and provide teachers with accommodation in deprived communities as well as the establishment of kindergarten required by the policy.