Bongo (UER), June 15, GNA - Research conducted in Bongo District has revealed that most of the children attend school late than the ideal age of six years.

However, with the introduction of Capitation Grant and School Feeding Programme, enrolment has increased tremendously but most of the students in Junior High School level are between 20 and 21 years. The research was conducted by Civil Societies Groups under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) led by the Alliance for Reproductive Health Rights (ARHR) and SEND Foundation Ghana between 2007 and 2008. It was conducted in five schools to monitor education and health in MDGs to inform Government on how Ghana could achieve the goals by 2015. The research realised that child labour was high in the area because most of the children have become bread winners in the families and had to undertake farming at the expense of their education especially during the farming seasons.

It called for increase in the provision of educational infrastructure due to the increase in enrolment, but the dual desks in schools were not disabled friendly, did not give free movement to teachers for effective and efficient supervision while some of the pupils copy from their colleagues.

The windows to the classrooms did not allow enough light and air which affects teaching and learning ad rains affect attendance in school when the roads become impassable.

According to the research, Bongo has only 50 per cent of trained teachers at the primary level and 72 per cent at the Junior High School level making the teachers to be overburdened with high pupil-teacher ratio of 103 to a teacher in some schools. Some of the teachers were drunkards, absentees, give exercises to the pupils but fail to mark them to determine the pupil's performance and this had affected academic performance of pupils in the area.

On health, the research said most pregnant women in the district did not attend ante-natal care while supervised deliveries was low because most of them preferred to deliver at home assisted by traditional birth attendants with its risks. It said sanitation was a major challenge in the area and domestic waste management posed grave health concerns because about 23 per cent of the population in Bongo had access to household latrines. The research findings therefore, recommended that more education and sensitization programmes should be embarked upon by the district assembly and other stakeholders to encourage parents to appreciate the need to send their children to school early and wrong under the Children's Act to engage children in labour.

It appealed to Government to provide more educational infrastructure to meet the high enrolment as a result of the Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme, provision of better windows for the classrooms and provision of special facilities to meet the demands of people with disabilities, while offending teachers were punished. Mr Samuel Ofori Boakye, Programme Officer and Mr Sidua Hor, Project Officer of ARHR, said as civil society organizations, they viewed the need for Ghana to achieve the MDGs very crucial. They noted that although it was in the interest of the United Nations and Government to monitor and measure progress, performance should be monitored by civil societies which were the major development partners.

The research team took a close look at the current situation and the impact of government interventions in 50 communities in three districts. These were Bongo District in Upper East Region, Komenda-Eguafo-Edina-Abirem District in Central Region and Kwahu North District in Eastern Region. Mr Mohammed Issahaque, Bongo District Deputy Coordinating Director commended the civil organizations for the research that would help inform and prompt Government and other stakeholders to ensure Ghana achieved the MDGs target by 2015. 15 June 09