Asamankese, Dec 10, GNA - The West Akyem Municipal Assembly is to enforce a bye-law that prohibits children under 18 years from loitering about in the Municipality after 2100 hours. The Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Seth Otchere, said the enforcement= of the law was a result of poor examination results produced by schools in t= he municipality.

Mr Otchere was speaking to the GNA when he and other stakeholders in=

education, including the Municipal Education Director, visited four schoo= ls in the municipality on Thursday. Schools they visited included Asamankese Zion, Takrowase, Abamkrom, Methodist and Kwao Baah L/A Primary and Junior High School (JHS) to find out why schools were performing poorly.

Mr Otchere said about 36 children were arrested and their parents together with the children were put before the Asamankese Circuit Court. The parents were made to pay GH¢ 120 or in default serve 14 days imprisonment in hard labour for not taking good care of their children. Mr Otchere said the municipal education oversight committee also met= to discuss issues, which could help raise the standards of the Basic Educati= on Certificate Examination (BECE) results in the area. He said one of the measures to be taken was to transfer teachers who=

had over- stayed at one station to other stations.

He said the municipal assembly, in collaboration with the education directorate, would conduct mock examinations for upper primary and JHS pupils before they would be promoted to the next class. He said JHS three students would not be registered for the BECE if th= ey failed to get 60 percent in the examination to be conducted. Mr Otchere said the assembly would intensify unannounced visits to schools to find out the performances of teachers and head masters.