TAMALE RECORDS POOR PERFORMANCE IN EXAMS (PAGE 11)

STORY: Vincent Adedze, Tamale

THE Tamale Metropolitan Director of Education, Mrs Alexandra Sopimeh, has bemoaned the declining performance of the metropolis on the National League Table in examinations over the past five years.
“In 2003 the directorate was 29th on the national league table and went down to the 60th position in 2004, to the 62nd in 2005 to the 88th in 2006 and in 2007 the directorate took the 91st position; what is really happening?” Mrs Sopimeh asked.
Speaking at this year’s stakeholders’ forum of the Metropolitan Directorate of Education on the Annual Performance Report in Tamale, the director attributed the unsatisfactory performance of the metropolis to lack of conducive environment to enhance teaching and learning, inadequate infrastructure particularly office accommodation and classroom blocks, poor motivation for teachers among other issues.
The forum which was organised by the Metropolitan Directorate of Education and sponsored by ActionAid Ghana, a non-governmental organisation, discussed among other issues enrolment, state of infrastructure in schools, monitoring and supervision, as well as academic performance.
Mrs Sopimeh observed that “for the past five years teachers in the metropolis have not been motivated partly because the directorate had difficulties in the procurement of materials for the organisation of the annual best teacher/worker awards”.
“An officer needs a comfortable working environment to give of his or her best just like a pupil needs a spacious classroom to feel free to learn; unfortunately for us, office accommodation in the metropolis is a big problem”, she noted.
The director expressed regret that due to the lack of a conducive office accommodation, the directorate had been housed in 12 rooms in the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly office block with a workforce of 74.
“Nobody has a permanent sitting place or table while circuit supervisors have nowhere to write their reports; at best anybody takes any vacant seat. In other words, the situation has become first come first served”, Mrs Sopimeh stated.
She acknowledged that although the Northern Region generally lagged behind other regions in terms of education it was not acceptable for the metropolis to lag behind other districts in the region.
Presenting the Annual Performance Report, the Assistant Director of Planning and Budget of Education, Mr Samuel Awugah, stated that the number of trained teachers in the metropolis was “critically low compared to the enrolment”.
“Two hundred and forty-four out of the total 945 teachers at both the public and private kindergartens are trained; how best can we overcome this?” he asked.
Mr Awugah further noted that the pupil-teacher ratio had fallen from 19:1 in 2006/07 to 18:1 in 2007/08.
He attributed the situation to the influx of teachers into the metropolis due to the availability of basic social amenities in the area as compared to the nearby districts.