Friday, July 3, 2009

ASSEMBLY TO SPONSOR MORE TEACHER TRAINEES (PAGE 23)

THE Wassa Amenfi West District Assembly in the Western Region will widen its current scope of sponsorship to enable more qualified applicants to gain admission to Colleges of Education to reduce the number of untrained teachers and improve academic standards in the district.
This is against the backdrop that academic performance of schoolchildren in the district over the years has not been encouraging.
Last year, the district presented 2,540 candidates for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), out of which only three candidates got aggregate six, 157 candidates had aggregates between seven and 15, while 1,198 candidates got between aggregates 15 and 30.
Five schools scored zero per cent, meaning that no candidate obtained a pass in the five schools.
In all, the entire district scored 54 per cent pass, with the remaining 46 per cent failing.
The Wassa Amenfi West District Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Victor Meisu, announced this at the 3rd quadrennial district conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) at Asankrangwa.
He urged the teachers to rekindle their efforts to reverse the trend by coming out with strategies and plans that would help to improve on the low standard of education in the district.
Mr Meisu also advised the teachers to address certain negative practices such as frequent absenteeism on the part of both teachers and students, indiscipline, alcoholism, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy as well as other anti-social activities which affected effective teaching and learning.
He said the government was committed to quality education delivery in the country.
That, he explained, was the reason why the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) had been at the forefront in the provision of infrastructure and other logistic support for public schools across the country.
The Wassa Amenfi West District Director of Education, Ms Vida Odoom, stressed that until the teaching profession was accorded dignity and respect, quality of life for teachers and other educational workers and the quest for quality education would be a mirage.
“In the face of all these constraints, however, permit me to appeal to my fellow teachers to live beyond reproach,” he emphasised.
“Let’s always perform our duties to the best of our abilities for the education of the Ghanaian child cannot wait”, he added.
Ms Odoom stressed that posterity would not forgive the teachers if they shirked their responsibilities of educating the child.
“It is our combined abilities to move education in the right direction that will propel our association to fight legitimately for our legitimate concerns,” she said.
The District Director advised the teachers to avail themselves of the numerous opportunities offered by tertiary institutions to upgrade themselves.

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