Mr Emmanuel Adema, the Kassena-Nankana East District Chief Executive, has expressed dissatisfaction at the perennial poor performance of pupils at the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the District.

He said despite major investments in the education sector, the results of pupils at the basic level continued to be poor.

Mr Adema was speaking at a district forum organized by the Kassena Nankana District to sensitize the citizens on government policies, programmes and development activities it had engaged in since 2009.

He said the results showed a declining trend from 2009 to 2011. In 2009, 15 schools attained the 50% per cent pass mark out of 25 schools presented for the examination.

In 2010, out of 28 schools that took part in the exams, only seven got the 50% pass mark whiles in 2012, with an increase in the number of schools to 30, only five attained the 50% pass mark.

He said the assembly in addressing the situation had organized education fora to solicit stakeholder views on how to reverse the downward trend.

“We cannot afford to look on unconcerned when the hope and future of our children are shaped poorly by our actions and inactions,” he said.

Mr Andema said the School Feeding Programme had reached out to 12 more schools in addition to the four beneficiary schools and about 120,132 books had been distributed to schools and boreholes for eight selected schools drilled.

On health, he said the District Mutual Insurance Scheme covering the Kassena Nankana East and West had currently registered 131,643 beneficiaries.

He mentioned abuse by clients and variations in prices of medicine as a major challenge that had impeded the smooth operation of the scheme.

He said Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM) had claimed five lives and that health personnel had embarked on an immunization programme in the District to control the spread of the disease.3

Mr Adema said the Government had encouraged the youth to go into agriculture, introducing the block farming programme which had seen 3,638 farmers benefiting from the programme in rice, soybeans, maize, onions and tomato cultivation.

Mr Andema said the Local Enterprises Skills Development Programme (LESDEP) implementation in the district was making strides in complementing the National Youth Employment Programme).

As a start-up, 49 beneficiaries have been trained and given start up kits in the LESDEP project, with a total number of 185 beneficiaries being engaged.

Mr Mark Woyongo, the Upper East Regional Minister, said the construction of a solar plant in Navro-Pung would provide power for Navrongo and its environs when electricity goes off.

He said the provision of eight ambulances for ambulance centres to be cited at Garu, Zebilla, Sandema and Navrongo would help reduce maternal and child mortality in those areas.