Mr Amidu Issahaku Chinnia, Deputy Upper West Minister, has called on stakeholders in the education sector to work together to tackle growing poor performance of students in schools in the Region.
He made the call following complaints by stakeholders about mounting indiscipline and poor academic outcomes among students, particularly those in senior high schools, at the time government was making huge investment in the education sector.
Mr Chinnia, who was speaking during the 25th anniversary celebration of Tumu Senior High Technical School, advised the students to focus on their academic studies and read more books as well as eschew insubordination and rowdiness, which drew back performance.
The anniversary was the theme: “Resources for Quality Technical and Vocational Education: The Role of Stakeholders”.
He said government was focusing its attention on technical education to develop the human resource base of the country, stating: “Countries that have developed in manufacturing and industrial sector focused much on technical and vocational education”.
Mr Chinnia added that government had a robust plan to industrialise Ghana by setting up factories through the introduction of one-district one-factory policy to provide jobs and incomes for households.
Therefore, he said the concentration of government on technical and vocational education was meant to produce the needed human capital for the industrialisation efforts, which would equip the youth in Upper West with the right skills to work and establish themselves in life.
He added that rolling out of the double track system to tackle mass enrolment in senior high schools was an innovative way to address the challenge and gave every Ghanaian child the opportunity to access senior high school education.
He said the outcry about falling standard of education in the Region by stakeholders could be addressed by collectively working together to tackle the challenge.
Mr Ridwan Abass Dauda, the Member of Parliament for Sissala East Constituency, said education was key to national development aimed at reducing poverty and called on students to change their attitudes for the better.
He added that education was a shared responsibility, which called for support from other stakeholders to complement efforts by government to provide the necessary infrastructure and teaching and learning resources.
District Chief Executives in the Sissala area, Ghana Education Service officials, traditional leaders, student, parents and guardians took part in the anniversary celebration.
The School was opened in 1991 under the Ghana Education Service reform programme, with an enrolment of 150 students and nine staff under the headship of Mr Cuthbert Kuunyem.
The current population of students was around 1,651 with staff strength of 116, operating the double track system.
Headmaster of the School, Mr Joseph Naah Gandaayiri, said the School aimed to provide an enabling environment for teaching and learning towards acquisition of practical knowledge and experience in technical and agricultural skills to ensure students become self-reliant.
However, he said for the past few years the West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination performance had been quite abysmal.
