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A Deputy Minister for Education in charge of Tertiary, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has revealed that the quality of education in the Volta Region has taken a nose-dive and was about hitting the rocks. �In time past, everyone thought of people in Volta region when education was made mentioned of in a conversation but the current statistics is very disappointing and heart wrenching� he stated. He described as heart wrenching given that a region noted for such high academic virtue had sharply declined. The Deputy Minister noted that the region had most of the nations Teacher Training Colleges yet statistics puts the region at the bottom in the Basic Education Examination Certificate (BECE) whereas results for the West African Secondary School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), was nothing to write home about. According to him, the best school in the region was ranked 23rd in the national rankings whiles the best ever district was 83rd at the national level. Hon. Ablakwa who made those statements during the Awards and Handing Over ceremony of the University of Ghana, Legon�s branch of the Volta Region Association of Students (VORSA) last Saturday in Accra attributed the predicament to teacher absenteeism, lack of supervision among other reasons. He further revealed that Volta Region emerged winner of Teacher absenteeism with a percentage of 49; a figure he said was higher than what was recorded nationwide. �You pull a surprise visit on the rest and you will realise that some are drunk early that morning and are not able to teach as a result�. He pointed out that about 254 schools were without teachers yet the Volta region alone accounted for 3000 excess teachers. �Sometimes I want to believe it is a conspiracy against the region�, the Deputy Minister opined. Each year government spends about 2.3 billion cedis representing 34% of the nation�s budget to pay teachers however; there are no positive results to show for government�s input. In the District analyses of the BECE, it popped up that poorer district came top gabbing the cities and towns. This means teachers who are in the cities and towns with all the social amenities and have refused to be deployed to the remote areas were not working as expected of them�, Okudzeto stressed. The Deputy Minister underscored the need for a government policy to redeploy teachers to the remote areas and a different policy in order to separate those who have the passion to teach from those who enter the profession with a different ideology. Bemoaning the current educational trend in the region, Samuel Okudzeto observed should it continue without any action taking against it, children in the region were going to be educationally disadvantaged. That he said will pose a threat to the society since they would resort unacceptable way of living.