Social Education Volta Strategize to halt falling standards of education in V/R -Director

Ho, April 17, GNA - Rev Samuel Affainie Amankwah, Volta Regional Director of Education, on Friday urged stakeholders of education to strategize to halt the lowering standards of education in the region. He was addressing the plenary session of the three-day 2009 Volta Regional Education Sector Review Meeting in Ho. Rev Amankwah said the commitment demonstrated by participants at the meeting should translate into projections that would improve all-round performance in the region, hitherto acclaimed, as a cradle of education in Ghana. He advised that deliberations at the meeting took cognizance of the region's competitive strength reflected in the high capacity for technical skills among its people. Rev Amankwah reminded Municipal and District assemblies of their responsibilities for financing and supporting education in various forms. The meeting heard performance reports of special committees on Basic Schools, Junior and Senior High schools and Tertiary Education in the region. The committee on Basic Education listed lower numbers of pupils from primary school entering Junior High Schools, poor teacher quality, poor supervision and ineffective school management as some of the challenges. The committee on Senior High School said the proliferation of secondary schools with poor infrastructure were major drawbacks to raising standards and suggested clustering of such schools to attract government support and share resources. It called for direct university programmes to enrol technical students to attract more students into technical education District directors of education, district coordinating directors, school heads, educational sector planners, adult education managers and special education experts were among participants at the review meeting which was supported by the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV).