The Central Regional minister, Kwamena Duncan says he has fears for the future of the region.

He says his fear is heightened any time he thinks of the next twenty to forty years when “prominent people are to be counted”.

The honourable minister expressed this sentiment at a stakeholder’s meeting at the Regional Coordinating Council after a presentation by an education committee he constituted to ascertain the factors leading to the poor performance of pupils in public basic schools within the region.

The committee, which assessed some twenty schools from eleven districts which performed poorly in the past year, identified the lack of supervision, parents’ shirking their responsibilities and children showing very little interest in education as major challenges bedevilling education in the region.

Speaking on the findings, the regional minister said parents must be held responsible for their children’s welfare.

A visibly disturbed Mr. Duncan indicated that the responsibility does not only lie with government to change the current standing of the region and called on traditional authorities, MMDCEs and parents to work towards children of the region benefiting from educational institutions in the region.

The regional minister said it is totally unacceptable for the region to boast of some of the great educational institutions in the country yet play host to students from other regions while those from the region continue to wallow in illiteracy.

He added that as a matter of urgency, the committee on education which was charged to identify the cause of the decline in education among public schools in the region with Nananom and the RCC will in a letter to the minister of education and copy the president demand the thirty percent (30%) quota reserved for students from the central region when admissions into senior high schools are being done.