Winneba, (C/R) May 14, GNA - Forty-two percent of public schools in the Winneba Directorate of Education do not have functional School Management Committees (SMC) thereby affecting effective administration of schools and teaching and learning. At the Junior High level, 46. 2 percent of them do not have functional SMCs.

At the end of the third Annual Education Performance Review Conference, participants, consequently, urged the Municipal Education Planning Team to organise periodic skills development and role-performance workshops for members of the SMCs. "The Effutu Directorate of Education needs dedicated and committed members in the communities to serve as members of the School Management Committees, PTAs and Board of Governors in order to strengthen management and administration of the schools."

In a report, released in Winneba and copied to the Ghana News Agency, the Directorate said all basic and second cycle schools in the Municipality in accordance with the Ghana Education Service policy were to have either School Management Committees or Board of Governors. The report stated that in an attempt to promote girls' education, 16 bicycles were supplied to girls in 16 selected basic schools to enhance their school attendance.

According to the report 51.3 percent of candidates failed in the 2009 Basic Education Certificate Examinations and none of the candidates in a school in the Municipality had between aggregate 6 and 30 to qualify for admission into SHS. "Performance of JHS pupils in the core subjects seemed to be below average especially in Social Studies, Mathematics, Integrated Science and English Language, making it impossible for most of them to gain admission into second cycle schools." The report said that the performance of Primary Four pupils in the School Education Assessment is considerably low even though 95. 5 percent of primary teachers are trained.