Bolgatanga, March 7, GNA - A Civil Society Organization, Northern Patriots in Research and Advocacy, (NORPRA) has said the services of medical officers in the Upper East Region should be used for medical examinations required for school admissions.

Likewise, local examiners should be engaged to mark the scripts of BECE candidates in mock examinations instead of their counterparts in Accra. The President of NORPRA, Mr. Bismark Adongo Ayorogo, who led its members to the Regional Minister, Mr. Mark Woyongo, to express their concerns, said they were unhappy that medical examination of students in second cycle institutions in their region was undertaken by health clinicians from Accra.

Mr. Ayorogo stated that there were equally competent medical officers in the Region who could do the job but their colleagues were made to travel from Accra for the exercise. "The monies spent of their trip could be used to develop the region," he said.

"NORPRA is not also happy about the situation where mock examination papers of Junior High Schools in the Region are given out for contract to a company in Accra," he added. "This could be done in the region to save cost and other inconveniences." The Civil Society organization said they were against the levying of parents initiated by some school authorities to reward staff and teachers as an incentive.

The NORPRA Members appealed to the Committee organizing the region's 50th anniversary celebration to assign competent people in the Region to design paraphernalia for the occasion but not award the contract to those outside the region, saying they were ready to offer their services towards the event. The NORPRA members asked the Regional Minister about the progress of the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority (SADA). In response to the SADA question, the Minister said the government had finished some of the processes and that a bill was before Parliament and expressed the hope that its implementation would start shortly after its passage.

The Regional Minister assured the NORPRA members that the Regional Coordinating Council would investigate the concerns raised and assured them of roles to play in the forthcoming 50th Anniversary, scheduled to start in September.