According to her, the situation is greatly impeding the student’s academic performance, especially in their Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE).

She made the complaint when Ghanaian scientist, Dr. Nana Ama Browne Klutse, held a two-day training for science teachers at Saltpond with support from Ghanaman Education Trust to equip the teachers with skills for effective teaching.

Martha Acquah, who said the cessation in supply of the textbooks is not peculiar to her municipality, explained that “in terms of logistics, we do not have books. As for registers and notebooks and exercise books, they come but not in great quantity, especially the exercise books. But at least students can have 2 or 4 each. In terms of textbooks, we do not have them. For a long time the government has not been supplying us the textbooks. What we have in the schools are already too old and torn. So we cannot make any good use of them”.

She added that, “[with] science for example, the municipality does not have the books, just a few and it is part of the reason science is going down in the municipality and the region as a whole. We have to use the textbooks, but very often teachers have had to copy the notes on the board for them. Some of the students do not even copy the notes no matter how hard some teachers try”.

 Citi News understands that the Central Regional Minister assembled all education directors and other stakeholders in the region when results from the BECE results for 2017 painted a gloomy picture.

Mrs. Martha Acquah mentioned that the Municipal Chief Executive for Mfantseman, Kenneth Kelly Essuman, has promised to provide some funds for textbooks for the schools.

“The MCE is ready to support. How soon I cannot tell. But he has promised to do something for us. Maybe putting aside some of their Internally Generated Funds IGF to see if it can acquire some books for the schools”.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The period also saw a reduction in institutional deaths under-five from 31 in 2016 to 19 in 2017, while the teenage pregnancy rate also reduced marginally from 15 per cent in 2016 to 13 per cent in 2017.

The Municipal Health Director, Georgina Graham-Hayfron said the feat was despite the fact that malaria continued to be the main cause of illness in the Municipality with 20 per cent of all cases being confirmed.

Ms Graham-Hayfron was addressing the 2017 Annual Performance Review Meeting of the Directorate at Saltpond on Friday.

She said Out Patient Department (OPD) cases reduced from 13,755 in 2016 to 11,099 in 2017.

She said malaria still topped cases reported at the OPD with 30,039 cases followed by Upper Respiratory Tract infections, skin diseases and diarrhoea respectively.

She said the Directorate recorded 94 stillbirths in 2017 as against 92 in 2016 and six cases of maternal deaths compared to the five recorded in 2016.

Ms. Graham-Hayfron implored all stakeholders to support the Directorate’s rigorous ongoing activities in HIV and Tuberculosis (TB) to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the diseases.

She said delays in the release of funds by the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) to the health facilities remained the biggest challenge of the Directorate.

She disclosed that the NHIA owed some health facilities in the Municipality GH¢ 851,362.78 with the highest debt owed to the Mankessim Sub Municipal.

High institutional maternal mortality (150 per 100,000 live births), high still birth rate (22 per 1000 live births), inadequate midwives, nurses and doctors and delay in seeking health care by community members, especially pregnant women, were among the problems facing the Directorate.

Ms Graham-Hayfron said the Directorate hoped to reduce institutional maternal mortality from 150 per 100,000 to 50 per 100,000 live births by the end of 2018 through improved services and stakeholder engagement.

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Source: GNA

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