Winneba (C/R) April 16, GNA - The Central Regional Minister, Ms Ama Benyiwa Doe, has appealed to stakeholders in Education to help promote educational standards in the region. She said the region, which was formally leading in education, placed last in the 2007/2008 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

The Regional Minister said this when she interacted with authorities of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), on Wednesday, on how best the falling standards of education could be reversed. The Regional Minister was accompanied to the University by Mr Michael Essando, Central Regional Chief Director, Mr Mathew Quayson, Effutu Municipal Coordinating Director and the acting Municipal Chief Executive.

Ms Benyiwa Doe said the government was doing its best to find solutions to problems facing the educational sector and, therefore, charged the UEW, as an institution that trains teachers, to ensure that teaches give off their best to promote teaching and learning. She entreated the authorities to initiate innovation that could help the schools excel in all examinations to enable the region to take its prime position in the educational record of the country. The minister urged the University to help find solutions to the high rate of unemployment in the region that had contributed to most children engaging in petty trading.

She emphasized the need for the University authorities to help the communities where they were operating to benefit from their services. Professor Akwasi Asabere-Ameyaw, Vice Chancellor of UEW, said the University would liaise with other stakeholders in education to conduct research on the low standards of education in the region. He said the university has numerous challenges, including the encroachment of their lands by private developers and the continuous reduction of their subvention and appealed to the minister to assist them to find remedial actions.

Mr C. Y. Akwaah-Mensah, Registrar of the University, appealed to the minister to help the institution to improve and expand facilities to enable them to train more teachers to promote quality education in the country.