The Chereponi District Assembly has intensified its fight against child betrothal, early marriage and teenage pregnancy.
The District Chief Executive, Hajia Mary Nakobo described the aforementioned as major factors inhibiting girl child education in the area.
[contextly_sidebar id=”wQp6B1yKBHc0RZhHVH052YGebrTxLeFI”]She gave the assurance that the situation which contributed to the falling standard of education in the area will soon be a thing of the past.
Hajia Mary Nakobo was speaking on the occasion of Ghana’s 58th Independence Anniversary held in Chereponi.
She said her administration reactivated the District Scholarship Fund to assist needy but brilliant students.
According to her, enough funds have been reserved for that purpose to enable the beneficiaries acquire advanced academic laurels.
Hajia Mary Nakobo emphasized that preferential treatment will be given to female students to overturn the dropout rates at the primary and Junior High School levels.
At the tertiary level, she stated, “We have sponsorship packages for brilliant but needy students: I have tasked the Education and Health Directorates to bond students from the nursing and teacher training institutions who will be sponsored and supported by the assembly to come back to the district and serve for an agreed period after their study.
She asked parents to pay attention to their children’s education by regularly visiting their schools and assisting them to do their home work.
She unveiled government’s agenda to expand education infrastructure and added that all ripped off school buildings will be renovated.
Hajia Nakobo said hardworking teachers in the district will be periodically rewarded.
“Let me use this occasion to inform you that teachers who perform creditably well will be awarded from now: the education Director will have to furnish my office with the list of such teachers from various schools for action to be taken.”
She said plans were afoot to sponsor two medical students studying abroad with the expectation that they will return home to serve their people.
On the cancelled district assembly elections, Hajia Nakobo said the status quo of it being non-partisan should be maintained.
She called for deeper collaboration between Ghana and her neighboring countries particularly Togo which shares boundaries with Ghana through Chereponi.
The Chereponi District Education Director, Michael Abdulai Akor condemned the rise in girl child elopement and challenged parents to stop the practice.
He said the district could boast of 16,890 children at the basic and Junior High School levels.
He bemoaned the falling standard of education at the SHS level and called for collective efforts to improve students’ performance.
“The WASSCE results for 2014 showed a very poor performance with more than 50% of them not making a credit in a single subject: the rest could not qualify to be admitted into the universities nor colleges of education and nurses training colleges.”
He advocated the revival of the District Task Force on education to stop school children from abandoning their books at night and watching European football matches at makeshift sheds, attending discotheques and sitting at Ghettos.
He disclosed that the district lacked professional especially English teachers at the Senior High School.
He also complained about overcrowding in classrooms and attributed it to inadequate infrastructure and appealed to government to fix the deficit.
Michael Akor recommended that attention should be given to deprived schools.
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By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana