Yilo Krobo suspends 2 schools
Arku Jasmine
Education
The Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly in the Eastern Region has directed the municipal education directorate to suspend two private junior high schools from registering and writing subsequent Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) with effect from 2014.
The affected schools will be given the chance to write BECE from 2017 if they fulfil the conditions of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
The two schools, Mawuli International and Oklibone International, both at Somanya, were suspended for not complying with the rules and regulations of both GES and WAEC.
Investigations and inspections revealed that they had no pupils in primary schools. In the case of Mawuli International, there were four pupils in class one and three pupils in class four while there were no pupils in classes two, three, five, and six. That of the junior high school had four students in JHS one, no student in JHS two, and 30 students in JHS three. Oklibone International had nobody in classes one to six but six students in JHS one, no student in JHS two, and 28 students in JHS three.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Andrews Sodah, announced this in his sessional address at the third meeting of the third session of the fifth Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly at Somanya last Monday.
The MCE explained that the suspension of the two affected schools came out of a report by the assembly’s Executive Committee on Social Services, that observed that the affected schools flouted the rules and regulations of both GES and WAEC in connection with the BECE.
He said since the assembly, together with the GES, put some measures in place two years ago, this year’s BECE results had improved and he remarked “we as an assembly shall pursue this case and improve on quality education delivery in our municipality”.
Briefing the assembly further at the meeting, the Municipal Director of Education, Madam Theresa Adarkwah, said, through investigations, it was discovered that the two affected private schools did not follow due process in registering students for the BECE.
She said due to poor performance of the municipality in the BECE for some time now, the municipal assembly gave a directive two years ago at the municipal School Performance Appraisal Meeting (SPAM) for non-performing students to be repeated in order to improve upon their performances.
Madam Adarkwah said for effective implementation of the policy from the municipal assembly, common examination for all pupils and students from primary one – junior high school form two was conducted for promotion of the good pupils/students. She said those who failed and were asked to repeat junior high form two left their various schools and were “adopted” by the two affected private schools who registered them for the BECE.
According to the education director, since the affected private schools could not produce cumulative records and continuous assessment marks for the students they “adopted”, she did not know how the affected schools computed the continuous assessment marks for WAEC.
According to the director, the two affected schools had four teachers each who were all WASSCE holders, which was against the guidelines and policies of GES. She said, each of the two schools should have at least one professional teacher each to man the school. However, there was none and wondered how effective the schools would be run.
The director therefore concluded that the two schools only existed in name as private schools but in actual sense, they were not in existence and therefore the directive from the municipal assembly would be implemented fully.
By Ezekiel E. Sottie/Daily Graphic/Ghana
The affected schools will be given the chance to write BECE from 2017 if they fulfil the conditions of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and West African Examinations Council (WAEC).
The two schools, Mawuli International and Oklibone International, both at Somanya, were suspended for not complying with the rules and regulations of both GES and WAEC.
Investigations and inspections revealed that they had no pupils in primary schools. In the case of Mawuli International, there were four pupils in class one and three pupils in class four while there were no pupils in classes two, three, five, and six. That of the junior high school had four students in JHS one, no student in JHS two, and 30 students in JHS three. Oklibone International had nobody in classes one to six but six students in JHS one, no student in JHS two, and 28 students in JHS three.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Andrews Sodah, announced this in his sessional address at the third meeting of the third session of the fifth Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly at Somanya last Monday.
The MCE explained that the suspension of the two affected schools came out of a report by the assembly’s Executive Committee on Social Services, that observed that the affected schools flouted the rules and regulations of both GES and WAEC in connection with the BECE.
He said since the assembly, together with the GES, put some measures in place two years ago, this year’s BECE results had improved and he remarked “we as an assembly shall pursue this case and improve on quality education delivery in our municipality”.
Briefing the assembly further at the meeting, the Municipal Director of Education, Madam Theresa Adarkwah, said, through investigations, it was discovered that the two affected private schools did not follow due process in registering students for the BECE.
She said due to poor performance of the municipality in the BECE for some time now, the municipal assembly gave a directive two years ago at the municipal School Performance Appraisal Meeting (SPAM) for non-performing students to be repeated in order to improve upon their performances.
Madam Adarkwah said for effective implementation of the policy from the municipal assembly, common examination for all pupils and students from primary one – junior high school form two was conducted for promotion of the good pupils/students. She said those who failed and were asked to repeat junior high form two left their various schools and were “adopted” by the two affected private schools who registered them for the BECE.
According to the education director, since the affected private schools could not produce cumulative records and continuous assessment marks for the students they “adopted”, she did not know how the affected schools computed the continuous assessment marks for WAEC.
According to the director, the two affected schools had four teachers each who were all WASSCE holders, which was against the guidelines and policies of GES. She said, each of the two schools should have at least one professional teacher each to man the school. However, there was none and wondered how effective the schools would be run.
The director therefore concluded that the two schools only existed in name as private schools but in actual sense, they were not in existence and therefore the directive from the municipal assembly would be implemented fully.
By Ezekiel E. Sottie/Daily Graphic/Ghana