Headteachers have been advised to desist from protecting recalcitrant teachers but give them up for punishment so that efforts to improve quality of education and discipline in schools would yield results.

Mrs Stella Abbey, Osudoku Circuit Supervisor, who gave the advice, noted that failure on the part of headteachers to allow recalcitrant teachers to face the law had contributed to the high rate of failure among pupils.

She was addressing the Third Annual Basic School Mentoring for BECE candidates at Osudoku in Accra on Thursday.

The mentoring programme being organised by Insight Ghana Foundation (IFG), a Child Development Oriented Non Governmental Organisation, is aimed at equipping BECE candidates with the needed knowledge to excel in examinations.

Mrs Abbey advised teachers to desist from wasting teaching hours on mobile phones as time lost could never be re-gained.

She appealed to the students to stay away from entertainment centres and concentrate on their books in order to come out with good grades.

Mrs Thomasia Brown, Executive Secretary, IFG, noted that mentoring programmes were vital for students during their formative years.

“However, it has been given little priority by relevant stakeholders and opinion leaders especially in deprived communities.”

She intimated that such situations negatively affected their development resulting in many social vices and poor academic performance, particularly in public schools.

Mrs Brown said the programme was designed to develop potentials, enhance and project individual and collective creativity, promote healthy lifestyle among students and inculcate leadership qualities among them.

She called on stakeholders to assist IFG to make the programme an annual affair and extended to other regions.

Mrs Brown expressed gratitude to NDK Financial Services for its commitment towards the programme since inception and other activities initiated by the NGO.**