Day: January 9, 2024

Kuoru Bamula Basinjia Chiemina III, the chief of Kandia, has proposed a Sisaala Education Forum to respond to the declining trend in Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) pass rates in the area.

Kuoro Basinjia made the suggestion at the annual Sissala Youth Forum held in Tumu in the Sissala East Municipality in a keynote address, showing a troubling narrative of abysmal academic performance in BECE results.

In the presentation, Kuoro Bamula indicated that the Sissala East Municipality had seen fluctuating pass rates in the BECE in recent years with variations in the number of pupils presented and their corresponding pass rates.

‘Despite intermittent improvements observed in certain years such as 2016 and 2018, the overall trajectory emphasises the pressing need for comprehensive interventions such as an education forum with stakeholders to bolster educational standards.

‘The Sissala West has grappled with a similar struggle in BECE performance, mirroring a situation of inconsistent pass rates wi
tnessed in Sissala East,’ the chief explained.

Kuoro Bamula said statistics from the Sissala East Municipality indicated that in 2015, 972 pupils were presented for the BECE, with a pass rate of 22.63 per cent, and 1087 in 2016 with a 39.0 per cent pass rate.

In 2017, 886 pupils were presented, with a 24.3 per cent pass rate whilst 1017 pupils sat for the BECE in 2018, with a pass rate of 45.0 per cent.

In 2019, 1018 pupils sat for the examination and a 41.2 per cent pass rate was recorded, in 2020, 1,101 pupils wrote the exams with a 19.0 per cent pass rate whilst, 2021 10.0 per cent pass rate was recorded.

For Sissala West District, 1,065 pupils wrote in 2020 with a 20.3 per cent pass rate, 1,217 pupils presented in 2021 with a 33.4 per cent pass rate whilst 1,036 pupils who sat for BECE in 2022 achieved an 18.0 per cent pass rate.

Kuoru Bamula reiterated that the Sisaala Education Forum was a pivotal force in reversing this downward trend in academic performance in the area.

The Forum’s comprehensive
roadmap included community education endowment funds, stringent teacher supervision, stakeholders’ sensitisation on the significance of basic education, intensified counselling services, and heightened community engagement.

According to Kuoru Bamula, ‘Basic education serves as the foundation for the empowerment and socio-economic advancement.

‘Leveraging local resources and technological advancements, the Forum aims to enhance learning experiences for students across both constituencies.

‘I envision a future where education catalyzes progress and empowerment and that the Forum’s initiatives align with the collective aspiration to restore academic excellence, ensuring equitable access to quality education and boundless opportunities for every child in the Sisaala Land,’ Kuoru Bamula said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Management of Oti Regional Education Directorate on the advice of the Oti Regional Coordinating Council (ORCC) and in consultation with the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has announced the reopening of schools in the Nkwanta South Municipality.

Nana Kugbeadzor-Bakateyi II, the Regional Director of Education, said that both Basic and Second Cycle institutions are to reopen for the continuation of the academic year, following the break occasioned by the recent tribal conflict in the area.

The statement said the Regional Education Directorate would closely coordinate with the ORCC to monitor the situation in Nkwanta township and ensure the safety of both learners and staff.

The statement again requested the Municipal Director and heads of the affected SHS to promptly implement measures to communicate with their management, staff and learners, urging them to return for duty at it earliest possible time.

Mr Joshua Makubu, Oti Regional Minister and Chair of Security Council, told the me
dia the heads of all security agencies had agreed to the reopening of schools after monitoring the situation.

He said adequate measures were undertaken to protect school pupils, students and teachers against any unforeseen repercussion in the jurisdiction.

He appealed to aggrieved tribesmen to give peace a chance and re-direct their concerns to the appropriate quarters for redress.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Dr Clement Abasinaab Apaak, the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Builsa South Constituency of the Upper East Region, has reiterated that the National Democratic Congress is not against licensing teachers.

‘The NDC is not against licensing of teachers. In fact, we had piloted the project to license teachers. What we oppose is teachers writing a licensure exam. The two are not the same,’ he noted.

Dr Apaak, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at Gbedema, a community in the Constituency, said ‘We believe that you can license a teacher without that teacher having to sit to write an exam which is just a basic test of pedagogy, numeracy and literacy.

‘We don’t believe that after four years rigorous training, if indeed our Teacher Training Colleges are up to the needed standard, teachers should have to write another exam to obtain a license,’ he added.

He explained that an NDC government would make the licensing process part of the training of teachers, ‘When you get enrolled to train as a teacher, ther
e is going to be a course that you will be taught from year one to year four, and you will write your final exam.

‘If you pass all the other courses, and pass that particular course, you are immediately given a license, and you are immediately deployed. So, there would not be the writing of a teacher licensure exam, and there would not be one-year National Service,’ he said.

Touching on shortage of teachers in public basic schools in the Constituency, which was a major concern of opinion leaders, the MP, who is the Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, said he raised the issue severally at the Committee level.

‘It is not fair to us because we are the segments of society that should get the best. In the advance countries like Canada and other places, it is in the deprived communities that they send their best. Yet in our system, the deprived communities are victimized even more.

‘So, what we are proposing, which was captured in our 2020 manifesto, which I know will be repeated in the 2
024 manifesto, is to have a very attractive incentivized package where we can have quarters with electricity.

‘Where the national grid is not in the community, we provide solar, furnish these accommodations with television sets, deep freezers and then we have an agreement with the teachers.

‘If they agree to go to the rural communities to teach, they teach for four years, they will have all these amenities, we give them motorbikes, and after the four years, we give them a scholarship to pursue further studies.

‘I believe that is a policy that can turn things around. And so, for us in the NDC, and as I have proposed, which was adopted for our 2020 manifesto, and I know will be repeated for 2024, this is the only way we can address this issue of teacher shortage in communities like ours, where we need education the most.

‘So, we have a solution, and we believe it will work,’ Dr Apaak, who is seeking re-election as MP to represent the Constituency, said.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Mrs. Ingrid Ansah, the Co-Founder of the Data Link Institute and Technology, has bemoaned the high rate of rote learning among students, saying it has become a worrying issue in schools.

Rote learning, popularly known in Ghana as ‘chew and pour,’ is a type of learning that involves memorising contents through repetition, which is believed to be easy and faster to recall especially during examinations.

She said rote learning, and lecturers asking students to buy, read, and strictly answer examination questions based on pamphlets and notes they have authored and sold have led to students graduating without the requisite skills to fit into the field of their studies.

Mrs. Ansah said this during a stakeholder engagement organised by the Ghana News Agency, Tema Regional Office, on the topic, ‘Transformation of the media landscape from the analogue age to the digital age; the role of training institutions.’

‘So now we have people coming out with first-class honours, but their performance is worse than those wi
th third-class honours,’ she said. She said this worrying trend cuts across all fields of training as employers continue to complain about the kind of human resources available for them to work with from tertiary institutions. Mrs. Ansah said the practice has put unnecessary burden and too much work on institutions, as they must use months to retrain the graduates practically in their field of study, in addition to the company’s work culture. ‘This is a cry from all over the companies; we have to retrain them in their field of studies; too much work is being given to employers, and this must stop,’ she said. She said, ‘practical training is totally missing in the training institutions, and this is evident in the workplace.’

She suggested that to cure this wrong, professionals from the various fields must be given the opportunity to lecture alongside their work to provide the needed practical training for students while in school.

Dr. Ernest Ansah, Founder of Data Link Institute and Technology said, the dema
nd for graduates with immediate impact was increasing in today’s competitive economy.

He said the school was prepared to meet that demands, thanks to the institution’s vast curriculum and concentration on real-world applications, which have enabled them to flourish.

Dr. Ansah, who is the founder of the Centre for Business and Media Studies’ cited numerous obstacles, including funding, poor facilities, and the inability to recruit and maintain highly experienced academics and personnel.

He said poor research output, logistical assistance, and low student enrolment were some of the issues facing the country’s educational institutions.

Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager, appealed to professional training institutions to collaborate with the corporate world not only for industrial attachment for trainees but also to create a platform for specific professionals to interact with students during their course of study.

Mr. Ameyibor said there was the urgent need for the merger of theor
etical training and practical work to prepare students well to enter the job market.

Source: Ghana News Agency