Mr John Agyare, Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Ahanta West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) in the Western Region has hinted that he will focus on the continues provision of classrooms to communities without good school infrastructure at the basic level, and particularly ensure that abandoned school infrastructure which has reached an advanced stage was completed for use by the communities.
He added that another area which he will like the Assembly to focus on will be furniture for some of the schools even though some dual desks have been provided to some schools recently, but the deficit was still huge as some of the school children still sit on the floor to write.
Mr Agyare who was speaking in an interview with Spice News maintained that he will collaborate with the Education Directorate and all other stakeholders to reduce the situation to an acceptable level if not eliminate the situation completely.
According to ti him, education was the key that unlocks every potential and it was therefore unacceptable for the Assembly to fail in providing quality education for its children and for that matter, he will consider two major issues in education such as access to education and quality of education.
He noted that in terms of access, the Free Senior High School (SHS) policy by the Government has created and expanded access at the secondary level and commended the Government for introducing the policy, calling on all to support it.
Touching on the area of quality in education, he called on the Education Directorate for effective collaboration with the Assembly to ensure that the Municipality continues to maintain the already good Pupil-Teacher Ratio at all levels and also continue to support the Mock Examinations for the preparation of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates.
Mr Agyare underscored the need to work together to ensure the availability of critical Teaching and Learning Materials (TLMs) in the schools.
He disclosed that the 2021 BECE Examination saw a total of 3,174 candidates sitting for the Exam in the Municipality who took four (4) Mock examinations organized for them to prepare them adequately ahead of the examination.
He was also impressed about the performance of the Senior High Schools in the 2020 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), especially that of the Baidoo Bonsoe Senior High Technical School (SHTS) which had a pass rate of 85% and the best in the Region for Maths, Science and English.
He added that Sankor SHS also had a pass rate of 80% and was 3rd in the Region while St. Mary’s Boys SHS equally did well with a pass rate of 72%.
“This is good but I think there is still room for improvement and for that matter, I will like all key stakeholders in the education sector to collaborate effectively to ensure that we pay more attention to what is working well for us and try to improve upon our weaknesses”, he stressed.
However, he said it has come to his attention that whiles many of the communities may not necessarily need teachers’ residential accommodation, other hard-to-reach places like Cape Three Points, Butre and others may need such facilities to ensure effective teaching and learning.
He gave the assurance to have a discussion in the very near future with the Assembly Members and the technical staff to fashion out a way of dealing with the situation.
Story: Seth Danquah
