By Michael Foli Jackidy
Dekpor (V/R), Sept. 01, GNA – Mr Eric Edem Agbana, Member of Parliament (MP) for Ketu North, has called for an urgent investigation into the municipality’s poor performance in the recent Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), warning that the situation requires immediate collective action to prevent further decline in learning outcomes.
Speaking at his fifth Quarterly Accountability Series at Dekpor on Sunday, Mr Agbana said Ketu North was among the poor-performing municipalities in the examination, a development he described as deeply worrying and one that demanded a thorough assessment of the factors undermining teaching and learning in the municipality.
He said visits to some schools revealed that some of their best-performing grades started from Aggregate 30 and above, raising serious concerns about the quality of teaching, students’ preparedness and the overall learning environment.
Mr Agbana said although he had supported the Municipal Education Directorate, teachers and schools, including sponsoring professional development workshops for teachers, the interventions had not yet produced the desired improvement.
He said while Ketu North faced a shortage of teachers, the municipality had a relatively strong complement of qualified teachers compared with some districts in the country and the Volta Region that were recording better BECE results.
He therefore called on chiefs, queen mothers, the Municipal Education Directorate, the Assembly, teachers and parents to urgently investigate the root causes of the poor performance and develop practical measures to reverse the trend.
Mr Agbana also urged parents to take greater responsibility for their children’s education by monitoring their academic progress and working closely with teachers and school authorities.
On the teacher shortage, he said the municipality was expected to benefit from a Youth Employment Agency initiative to recruit teaching assistants, which would provide additional support to teachers and help bridge the staffing gap.
He said improving academic performance in Ketu North should be treated as a collective responsibility, stressing that immediate and sustained action was needed to ensure that children in the municipality received quality education and achieved better results.
GNA
Edited By: Maxwell Awumah/Kenneth Odeng Adade