Juaso (Ash.), Feb. 8, GNA - Miss Theresa Owusu-Nyarko, District Director of Education for Asante-Akim South, at the week-end advised head teachers in public schools to improve upon their supervision and monitoring of their teachers and report truant as well as non-performing teachers to educational authorities for appropriate sanctions.

She stressed that the result of 2004 Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) was not encouraging, though the District moved from the 103 position in 2003 to 101 in 2004 and blamed the teachers for the poor performance, especially teachers in the primary schools, who did not prepare the children well before they got to the Junior Secondary School level.

Miss Owusu-Nyarko, who was speaking at her first meeting of the year with heads of basic school to assess their performance and achievement for 2004 and find remedies to their failures in the district, also blamed parents for the poor performance of the students. She made it clear that the District Directorate would intensify its supervision and monitoring, and urged Circuit Supervisors to re-double their efforts.

The District Director warned the head teachers against collecting illegal fees from the pupils, and said under no circumstance should any of them levy pupils without the approval of the District Assembly and entreated them to desist from sending pupils away from school for any money during school hours.

She disclosed that her outfit was going to organise a common promotional examination for all basic six pupils, and those who would fail to make the pass mark would be made to repeat their class with the consent of their parents or guardians. The head teachers attributed the poor performance of pupils to the wholesale promotion being practiced and indiscipline as well the reluctance of the pupils to studying during school hours. 08 Feb. 05