Bongo DCE worried over fallen academic standards among BECE candidates

22-11-13   

BECE Candidates in action

The District Chief Executive [DCE] for the Bongo District in the Upper East Region, Alexis Adugdaa Ayamdor  is worried about  the increasing fallen academic performance of students in the Basic Education Certificate Examinations [BECE] within the district. The DCE expressed the sentiment in his maiden address to the second ordinary meeting of the third session of the sixth Assembly.  Mr. Ayamdor noted that the assembly over the years has injected enough resources into the provision of educational infrastructure but much cannot be shown for it in terms of excellent performance at prescribed examinations. He said in spite of the assembly’s numerous efforts including financial assistance it gives to students at various levels of education, the performance of especially basic school pupils at their final exams keeps on dwindling and has taken a nose dive for some time now. The situation, he denounced could hold a bleak future for the human resource base of the Bongo district if nothing was done to salvage it. Meanwhile, 3-unit classroom blocks are under construction for the communities of Nayorogo and Atanseka while a teachers’ quarters at Vea is being renovated, all geared at beefing up educational infrastructural needs of the district. According to My Ayamdor, another area of concern was the increasing rate of girls becoming pregnant within the basic school system of the district and appealed to members of the assembly to join forces with parents and other stakeholders to educate the girl child and community members on the negative repercussions of teenage pregnancies. He pledged that the Assembly in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service will to the effective monitoring and supervision across the district in order to identify and remedy the obstacles effecting quality teaching and learning. He also mentioned teacher motivation as one of the surest ways to reverse the dwindling academic performance. Turning his attention on health, Mr. Ayamdor observed that malaria continues to top the list of all reported cases to health facilities throughout the district as well as account for most infant morbidity cases. He commended the district health directorate for instituting measures such as the Motor King Referral Scale-Up Project funded by the Doris Duke Charital Foundation. He emphasized that the time was due for the district to have a robust ambulance services unit which will help save lives in times of emergencies. He revealed that the Assembly has been supporting the Ghana Health Service by constructing CHPS facilities, giving financial support for immunization exercises, carting of food supplies to supplementary feeding  centres amongst others and that this will be improved in the coming years. On revenue mobilization, Mr. Ayamdor said the assembly is doing well but there is more room for improvement and accordingly tasked the finance directorate to come up with workable plans to mobilize more internally generated funds for developmental purposes and also plug all leakages in the revenue chain of the assembly.

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