Cape Coast, Oct. 8, GNA - The Minister of State In-Charge of Primary, Secondary and Girl-Child Education, Ms. Christine Churcher, on Wednesday blamed district directors of education and teachers, for the poor performance in schools in their areas.

According to her, most directors and teachers, were "giving up too easily", with excuses of insufficient supply of teaching and learning materials, and urged them to "wake up from their slumber" and work harder to improve education in the country.

Ms. Churcher was opening the 10th national conference of district directors of education under the theme: "bringing quality education to the doorstep of every child - a collective responsibility", in Cape Coast.

More than 110 district directors, as well as directors at the Ghana Education Service (GES) headquarters, were attending the seven-day conference, to take stock and plan towards a quality education in the coming years.

Ms Chrucher told the directors that instead of using the non-sufficiency of materials as an excuse, "you should rather feel ashamed that out of the number pupils in your schools, nobody qualifies to enter any senior secondary school in the country".

Ms Churcher expressed regret that in spite of efforts by the government to ensure quality education for all children of school going age by the year 2005, many children were still out of school. She urged chiefs to liaise with school authorities to address the issue.

She debunked the notion that girls were being given more attention in education to the disadvantage of boys, saying it was rather the girls who had been at a disadvantage for a long time.

The Western Regional Minister, Mr Joseph Boahen Aidoo, who is also the acting Central Regional Minister, reiterated the importance of education as the bedrock for the socio-cultural and economic development of the country.

He told the directors that as players in education, they should ensure that standards were not only maintained, but also improved upon. He appealed to individuals and organisations to complement the efforts of the government.

There were fraternal messages from the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS).