ILLITERACY RATE HIGH IN WESTERN REGION (PAGE 35, DEC 8, 2010)

THE literacy level in the Western Region is 54.3 per cent. Female literacy level is 45.4 per cent, lower than that of male which is 64.4 per cent.
More than half (57.6 per cent) of the people currently in school are at the primary level while junior high school attendance is 15.2 per cent.
There is, therefore, a very high attrition rate between primary and junior high school (JHS) levels.
According to a presentation by a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Legon, Professor Ivan Addae-Mensah, and Mr George B. Mettle on “Analysis of District Data and Implications for Planning—Western Region,” the region had seen some improvements in educational attainment and enrolment rates at the basic level over the last two decades.
They said people with basic education increased from 28 per cent in 1984 to 34 per cent in 2000 while over 70 per cent of the population in most districts had attained basic education.
However, the two professionals said that enrolment and attainment levels beyond basic were not very encouraging.
Apart from Shama-Ahanta East Metropolis now (Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis) and Wassa West (Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality) which recorded relatively low levels of illiteracy, all the districts have levels much higher than the regional average of 45.7 per cent, with the highest illiteracy levels in Juaboso, Bia and Aowin-Suaman Districts.
The region has about 1,320 primary schools, out of which 1,240 are public and 80 private; 694 JHS, about half the number of primary schools, and this constitutes 10.9 per cent of the total number of JHS in the country.
There are 42 senior high schools (SHS) in the region and most of them are concentrated in the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolis, where 36 per cent of the localities in the metropolis have such schools.
The situation is more serious in Jomoro, Nzema East and Mpohor Wassa East where more than 40 per cent of children in such communities have to travel 30 kilometres or more before attending SHS.
It was to help improve and promote education in the region that the Western Regional Co-ordinating Council, in collaboration with the chiefs and other stakeholders, established the Western Regional Education Trust Fund in 2005 and formed a Board of Trustees for the fund.
The 11-member Board of Trustees of the Western Regional Education Trust Fund has been re-constituted to promote the development of education in the region.
The objectives of the board are to assist brilliant, needy pupils and students, particularly in the public educational institutions, through the award of scholarships, bursaries and grants.
The board is also to improve the provision of teaching and learning materials, equipment and tools in schools.
Besides, the board is to provide incentives for the teaching and non-teaching staff who distinguished themselves and support special teaching and learning programmes and in-service training courses, especially in Mathematics, Science and English.
The main area of concern shall be primary education, even though the other levels of education could be considered depending on particular circumstances.
It is the conviction that when the primary level of education is strengthened through the provision of adequate resources, it will automatically make the other levels of education improve.
In the performance of its duties, the Board of Trustees of the Western Regional Education Trust Fund shall, among others, hold in trust for the people of the Western Region all funds, revenues and assets accruing in the name of the fund.
The board, without prejudice, will determine, approve and authorise the disbursement of benefits from the fund and, at a stakeholders meeting every July, present a report on its stewardship and financial statement on the trust fund.
Inaugurating the re-constituted Board of Trustees, the Western Regional Minister, Mr Paul Evans Aidoo, said the avowed aim of the board was to improve upon the present state of education in the region.
“You will agree with me that education in the region is beset with a number of challenges,” he said.
Mr Aidoo mentioned some of the challenges as children in basic schools who could not continue their education beyond the JHS owing to a number of reasons including financial constraints, while others from the deprived areas were unable to better their education due to inadequate resources in the schools.
Mr Aidoo observed that there were some children who should be in school but were out of school owing to the influence of “galamsey” activities in the mining areas and also fishing activities in the coastal communities.
“Now that the oil boom is around the corner, l hope many more children from the oil producing areas are not going to allow themselves to be distracted by oil related activities, which are likely to affect their education,” he said.
“They will rather avail themselves of the educational opportunities in the region so that they can be well positioned in the good jobs that the oil find will bring,” the regional minister added.
He, therefore, implored members of the board to deliberate on some of those issues and come out with acceptable strategies to address them since all those issues combined to affect education delivery in the region.
The Western Regional Director of Education, Mrs Rebecca Afiba Dadzie, called for interventions which would help strengthen basic education in the region.
That, she said, would help to get more students to the second-cycle and tertiary educational institutions.
The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Nana Adu Gyamfi, said with the calibre of members of the board, they would deliver to ensure the promotion and improvement of education in the region.