Madam Patricia Ayekor, the Bawku West District Director of Education, has said education was declining in the district.
She said this was due to pupils’ unwillingness to study, teacher absenteeism and parents’ passive attitude towards the education of their children.
Mad Ayekor said pupils in primary and junior high schools liked to own expensive mobile phones and constantly recharged them at the expense of their education and parents’ preference was performance of expensive funerals and occasion uniforms popularly called “yaaye”
Madam Ayekor told the GNA in an interview that her outfit was working hard to ensure that the phenomenon was fully checked.
The Director recalled her personal encounter with pupils who had dropped out of school and travelling to mining sites in the district to engage in “galamsey” at the expense of classroom work and said in spite of extensive community education on the need for parents to take the education of their wards serious, less attention was given to that sector.
She said the Directorate had taken stringent measures to check teacher absenteeism and alcoholism by introducing daily teacher roll call, strict performance exercises and monitoring as part of efforts to compel teachers to exhibit utmost professionalism.
Mad Ayekor appealed to stakeholders to focus on the compulsory aspect of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE), and said it guaranteed better education for the children in the area.
She said stakeholders especially parents must avoid unnecessary expenses at the expense of their children’s.
She appealed to chiefs, opinion leaders and other stakeholders to support the Ghana Education Service in the district to widen its community education programmes to give residents, especially parents, better understanding of the need to give priority to the education of their children.
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