- Director

Saboba (N/R), Feb. 02, GNA - Mr Charles Akatuk Saboba/Chereponi District Director of Education on Tuesday said head teachers who failed to utilise the Capitation grant should be considered saboteurs of their communities, children, the state and must be sanctioned. He noted that some head teachers within the district were not utilising the grant due to the inaction of some Parent/Teachers Associations (PTAs).

Mr Akatuk therefore, pledged to issue circulars to heads of basic schools within the district to reactivate PTAs to facilitate utilisation of the grant for the benefit of the children and parents.

He was speaking at a day's dissemination workshop on: "Budget tracking exercise on the Capitation grant" in the District at Saboba.

The Northern Network for Education Development (NNED) an NGO involved in advocating for the achievement of "Education for All" (EFA) in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions, organised the forum for Assembly Members, education directors, NGOs, chiefs and PTAs to enable them to participate in the implementation of the grant.

Mr Akatuk said the District Education Directorate had embarked on a sensitisation campaign to educate the people about the grant to enable them participate in the programme.

He pointed out that the grant had led to increase in enrolment of school children, especially girls, but expressed concern about the inadequacies of infrastructure development and teachers to help ensure the success of the programme.

Mr. Akatuk called on chiefs to enact bye-laws to sanction young men who would attempt to elope with school girls as wives and also stop the exchange of sisters by young men for marriage.

He said: "School girls need protection to remain in school and complete their basic education and I appeal to you to take a critical look at the issue to ensure that the education of girls are not jeopardised."

Mr. Azumah N. Sanda, Saboba/Chereponi District Chief Executive called on parents and teachers to play an active role in the education of their children, pointing out that the grant alone could not solve problems impeding the progress of education in the district.

He urged the participants to discuss challenges facing education in the northern parts of the country and come out with strategies to be adopted to improve educational governance and accountability to enhance the human resource development base of the district.

Mr. Sanda called for the involvement of civil society organisations in supervising the disbursement of resources allocated by the Government under the grant and other educational resources within the district. Mr. Abdallah Shiraz, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer of NNED said research findings had shown that less than 60 per cent of resources allocated for education development actually reached the target beneficiaries.

He said there had been complains at the national and local levels about inadequate and late release of funds to deliver education activities and appealed to the Ministry of Education and Sports to address the situation.

Mr. Shiraz however, noted that the ability to provide relevant, adequate and timely resources to the education sector without direct involvement of beneficiaries would impede achieving the "Education for All" agenda.