Regional News of Tuesday, 2 September 2003

Source: GNA

Eastern Region SRC holds congress

Aburi (E/R), Sept. 2, GNA - The Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Reverend Ama Afo Blay has expressed regret about the involvement of parents in the leakage of examination papers of both Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and the Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE).

She said she was surprised to see some parents moving heaven and earth to pay huge sums of money for examination questions as well as pay to gain admission for their children but refuse to accept increase in school fees.

Rev Afo Blay was speaking at the second Annual Delegates' Congress of the Eastern Regional Students Representative Council (SRC) at Aburi on Monday.

She noted the instances where Headmasters and Policemen were assaulted by some students because they refused to allow them to cheat in the examination hall and described the situation as unfortunate and pledged that the GES would do all it could to remove this canker from the system.

She advised school authorities to constantly conduct internal examinations to build up student's confidence so that they would not be scared and or become nervous during the final examinations conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC).

She stressed the need for the SRC to be used to instil peace and discipline in second cycle institutions to facilitate blossoming of academic excellence.

Rev. Afo Blay asked class representatives and the SRCs to regularly hold consultations with their class and student body to ensure that all potential causes of riots and misunderstanding are identified and dealt with at the initial stage rather than when it had gone out of hand.

She advised students not to abuse their youthful age so that they would be able to face the challenges of adulthood and urged them to start developing definite goals for themselves for the future.

The Regional President of the Council, Master Salifu Suleman appealed to the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports to replace guidance and counselling tutors since they were old and their techniques and methods were not suitable for the present day youths.

The Eastern Regional Director of Education, Mrs Awurabena Ahwoi, who chaired the function, advised the students to set targets for themselves and to strive to acquire skills that would useful to them in the future.

She advised them to abstain from early sex in order not to contract the deadly disease HIV/AIDS. 02 Sept. 03