Enhancing teaching and learning in basic schools in Ada West District
The Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results of schools in the Ada West District have been poor for the past three years.
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Education is important in the formative years of children because of its positive impact on their adult life.
The Government has been supporting education through various interventions in the area of teaching and learning. Some of these interventions are the phasing out of schools under trees, Schools Capitation Grant, free school uniforms and exercise books and the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
In the Ada West District, the assembly is undertaking many projects in the educational sector. It has built a six-unit classroom block for the Toflokpo Presbyterian Primary School and another one at Salom, while others are at various stages of completion.
It has also acquired offices for the district education directorate and a residence for the District Director of Education. All these steps were taken to improve education.
The Ada West District Director of Education (DDE), Mrs Rhodaline Mercy Lamptey, has also come out with a number of strategies to address the falling standard of education in the district.
These include: The setting up of a Directors’ Special Monitoring Team (DSMT) to monitor and submit situational reports on the academic work of the schools for immediate action.
She has also charged all education officers in the district to adopt at least one school to visit periodically and report on any special needs that such schools have to her office for quick action.
Furthermore, she has tasked the heads of the various schools in the district to compile a list of all BECE results for the last three years to find out the trend of progression or retrogression and suggest any necessary interventions.
Mrs Lamptey has also called for the activation of all parent-teacher associations (PTAs) and school monitoring committees (SMCs) to help reverse the trend of poor BECE grades.
Her desire and commitment to ensuring that candidates excel in future BECEs is supported by the existence of one of the best educational facilities in the district: The Bornikope Community Basic School Complex.
The school was established by the former First Lady, Dr Mrs Ernestina Naadu Mills, on November 12, 2011 as her contribution to education in the deprived community. This facility was inaugurated by the late former President, Professor John Evans Atta Mills.
It has nine classrooms for kindergarten to the Junior High School (JHS) level, a head teacher’s office, staff common room, library, computer room, sick-bay and washrooms.
Another important teaching and learning facility in the district is the Kathy Knowles Community Library at Goi.
This library holds good prospects for education in the Ada West District. It was set up by Kathy Knowles, a Canadian, to promote literacy and to share the joy of reading. It is well stocked with a lot of books for children from pre-school to the JHS level and has a large interior space to accommodate many learners.
This library is the first of its kind in the district and beyond, and provides a safe, clean, stimulating environment where reading is encouraged for pleasure, as well as academic gain. However, it is not receiving the needed patronage.
According to the librarian, Madam Vivian Amanor, attendance at the facility has been very low as teachers in the town do not allow the children to visit the library because they suspect the pupils use the library as pretence to go to town. Madam Amanor expressed the fear that if the trend continued, there was the possibility of the library being closed down or relocated to another community.
The way forward
The way forward is to ensure that pupils form the habit of reading to improve their knowledge of English. Teachers should support their pupils to form reading clubs and engage in competitive quiz programmes. The reading clubs will encourage periodic visits to the library.
The schools could be grouped into the coastal and inland blocks to generate competition. This would ensure that the library is patronised and teaching and learning enhanced in schools in the district.
Those who think education is expensive should try ignorance. Ignorance, as has often been said, is a deliberate misfortune!
The Writer is the Ada West District Information Officer.
E-mail: [email protected]
