Gomoa West District Worried Over Poor BECE Performance

The Gomoa West District Education Directorate is worried about the poor performance of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates in the district in the last two years. The directorate said the performance of candidates dropped from 69.86 percent in 2021 to 61 percent in 2022.

The directorate also lamented about the high teacher attrition rate in the district which it said plays a major role in the performance of students. The inadequate number of teachers in the district has also been largely blamed for the unfortunate reduction in the pass rate of candidates in the BECE.

Currently, there’s a 450-teacher ratio in the district per the records of the District Education Directorate. Other factors, such as inadequate desks for pupils, unbefitting infrastructure, and electricity, are also demotivating pupils and, in the cases of some pupils, lead to truancy and low enrolment rates.

The district also bemoaned the low enrolment rates recorded for the 2022/2023 academic year. At Gomoa Abutia, only 5 pupils have enrolled for upper primary according to the directorate, and these pupils are worried about the challenges. District director of education, Madam Cecilia Aboagye, is disturbed and wishes there were any means possible to prevent teachers from seeking transfers from the district, but she appears to be helpless and wants the Ghana Education Service to post adequate teaching staff to the district.

The Member of Parliament for Gomoa West Richard Gyan Mensah is also distressed by the poor records and inadequate teachers in the district.He suggested that the last option available to tackle the teacher deficit matter is to seek help from the National Service Scheme and other teacher training institutions in the central region.