She said the inability of most pupils to read despite being handled by professionals was unacceptable and required pragmatic measures to address the situation.

Addressing a meeting of heads of basic schools at Juaso, Mrs. Benewoe said plans were underway by her outfit to engage experts to train teachers handling class three to six to boost their capacities in the use of phonetics to improve their command over the language.

She said it was a shame that most pupils in the upper primary transiting to the Junior High School could not read, stressing the urgent need to reverse the trend. The Municipal Director said as part of efforts to make positive impacts on the children, a special phonetic lesson would replace the silent reading hours currently being practiced in various school.

Head teachers, she noted, had a critical role to play in the exercise by strictly supervising the activities of the beneficiary teachers and monitor their progress in the application of the knowledge acquired during the training.

Mrs Benewoe encouraged the head teachers to prepare and implement school development plans, adding that such initiatives could receive the support of School Management Committees (SMC) and Parent Teacher Associations (PTA).

You should always consider the interest and wellbeing of the children in any decision you made, she told the headteachers. Mr. Alexander Frimpong, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), announced that the Assembly would soon set up a social accountability committee that would go round to monitor the use of funds in schools.

The move, he said, was in line with the new Local Government Act to check the judicious use of resources in public institutions.  He commended the education directorate and teachers in the Municipality for their hard work, which had resulted in the improvement in Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) performance in recent years.