<<Print>>

Mr Emmanuel Keteku, Volta Regional Director of Education Thursday questioned the standard against which candidates at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) were being assessed by the public. He was addressing the inaugural conference of the Volta Region Circuit Supervisors Association (VORCSA) in Ho under the theme, �The Circuit Supervisor, the Pivot of Quality Education.� Mr Keteku observed that the BECE could not be compared to the Common Entrance and the Middle School Leaving Certificate (MSLC) Examinations which featured just four subjects compared with eight at the BECE, a combination of both the Common Entrance and MSLC Examinations. �They are doing better than we were doing when we were their age, many of us would fail if we took the BECE; motivate not castigate them,� he said. Mr Keteku observed that pupils today were performing in a hostile environment, as teachers skipped classes, focused on other things and burdened their pupils with extra classes within a limited time. Many teachers in the Volta Region have become commercial drivers and commercial motorbike riders, while others used the excuse of further studies, to absent themselves from school Mr Keteku said. �We are not performing well that is all, he said. He observed that the poor performance of the Region in the BECE in the last four years was a reflection of the failure of heads of schools and teachers in the region. Mr Keteku said there could be no excuses for poor BECE performance in the region because teachers in other regions were doing better. He said for four successive years now the region came second-to-last or the last on the league tables of BECE performances in the country. Mr Keteku said teachers and head teachers were simply �poisoning� their pupils, while they sent their own children to private schools to be taught by pupil teachers to post excellent results. He therefore called on Circuit Supervisors to crack the whip at non-performing heads of basic schools and teachers. �Flush them out and retain the serious ones�, he told the Circuit Supervisors. Mr Keteku warned that with time pupils who would become liabilities because their teachers did not do their duties towards them would become �armed robbers� and attack �your children who have become doctors and other high profile personalities.� Some Circuit Supervisors said the co-operation of Unit Heads would be crucial in enforcing standards in schools. They alleged that some teachers who were facing disciplinary action for non-performance got some Unit Heads to transfer them elsewhere.