Saeed Muhazu Jibril, the Savannah Regional Minister, has urged local legislatures in the area to devote 60% of funds available to the education sector.
The Minister’s instruction is to reverse the region’s declining educational standards.
On Wednesday, he issued the order during a regional education conference hosted by the Regional Coordinating Council.
It was revealed during the conference that less than 7% of pupils in the area who take the West African Senior School Certificate Examination pass all courses.
According to Mumuni Mbonwura Francis, the Savannah Regional Director of Education, the region’s highest performing Senior High School, Bole Senior High School, only managed a dismal 6.34 percent pass rate in 2019.
It was also revealed that the area has a high incidence of teacher shortage.
According to the Regional Education Directorate, the area has a 2,747 teacher shortage across all levels of basic education.
The Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District has the highest teacher shortfall of 737, while the West Gonja Municipality has the lowest at 151.
Mr. Saeed Muhazu Jibril, speaking at the conference, said that severe steps are required to change the situation in the area.
“The MMDAs in the Savannah Region, 60% of their funds are going to be spent on education. I’m not going to joke about it. So when you bring your medium-term plan and I take and study and I don’t see classrooms, I don’t see the renovation of classrooms, I don’t see furniture, I am going to throw it back at you to do it and bring it back before we approve.”
“I have instructed all District Chief Executives, those who are still there that this year’s DDF projects that they will be bringing, I want to see compound houses built for the various secondary (Senior High Schools) to take up their accommodation problems,” he stated.
Mr. Jibril also said that severe steps would be used to combat teacher absenteeism in the area.
He said that the situation in which some instructors do not come to school for weeks, months, or even a semester in the name of political communication would no longer be allowed.
On behalf of his colleagues, the Central Gonja District Director of Education, Veronica Tampuor-Kuupol, said that inadequate logistics and teacher and student absenteeism are among the main problems confronting education in the area.
“Another issue is logistics, lack of vehicles, motorbikes for our officers and fuel for monitoring. The few officers who have motorbikes have no fuel to go for monitoring.”
She also said that student absence during the agricultural season is a significant issue.
According to her, parents prefer to take their children to fields during the agricultural season rather than to schools, which she claims causes the students to miss out on a lot of contact hours.
Read Also: NDC youth slams government and police for allegedly neglecting Hawa Koomson shooting case
