Goaso (B/A), Sept. 24, GNA - The Asunafo District Assembly has set up a six-member ad-hoc committee to investigate the possible causes of academic decline in basic schools in the district.

Nine out of 83 secondary schools in the area scored zero percent, while the district's over-all output in this year's Basic Education Certificate Examination stood at 48.5 percent.

The committee, which has three weeks to submit its findings to the Assembly, will among other things, identify the level of influence that individuals and groups exert on formal education, to enable the Assembly to address the problem.

They include communities, teachers, parents, school authorities, School Management Committees and Parent Teacher Associations. Speaking at assembly's meeting at Goaso, the Asunafo District Chief Executive, Mr George Yaw Boakye, urged members to identify the causes of poor academic performance so that they could initiate strategies to reverse the trend.

He noted that the future of the nation lay in the hands of people with requisite knowledge and expertise and said the youth must be well trained to enable them to contribute meaningfully to national development.

Mr Boakye said as an interim measure to address the academic decline, the assembly's by-laws that ban school children from attending funerals wake-keepings, video shows and other social activities that hampered effective learning would be vigorously enforced. He warned that parents and guardians of school children who violated the laws would be prosecuted.