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EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

Education is the most treasured legacy any Assembly can give to its residents and also to only means through which development can be propelled development. Literacy is by far the most important and/or effective means by which a society could preserve and transmit its culture from one generation to another.

The existence of schools is a key determinant of access to education. The municipality has 153 schools situated in various communities; this is made up of 88 primary schools, 20 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), 42 kindergartens, two Senior Secondary, Technical and Vocational Schools and 3 vocational schools, these are the Fawohoyeden Leadership Training Centre, Goaso- Pentecost Vocational Training Institute and the ICCESS Institute at Akrodie. All these vocational institutions lack basic equipment to support their training programmes.

Most of the Junior High School and all the Senior High School are located in the only two urban centers of Goaso and Mim. This implies that students from the rural areas have to either relocate to the towns or travel daily to these centres to pursue their post primary or post Junior Secondary School education. Due to the difficulties that this poses to them, there is a high dropout rate at the transitional level of moving from Junior Secondary School to Senior High School and from Senior High School level to the post senior secondary level.

However, there are only 5 Secondary schools and 2 Vocation Schools – these include Ahafoman Secondary and Technical School, Mim Secondary School, Pentecost Vocation Institute, Greenland Business School, Fawohoyeden Youth Leadership Training Institute and International Business College

Most infrastructures of the primary schools in the municipality are in dilapidated state which needs urgent attention for rehabilitation. Most primary schools are found in make- shift structures or under pitched pavilions because of the unavailability of adequate accommodation facilities. Although, all the Junior High Schools and Senior High Schools have well-constructed and maintained buildings, not a single one of them has a workshop to facilitate technical trainings for pupils.  Furthermore, there are no libraries for the Junior Secondary School pupils.

Enrolment Trends – Pre-School/Primary/JSS   

                                   
In all levels of Basic School Education, it is observed that increase in enrolment is not stable over the years in all the circuits. At one ensuing year it could be noticed that the enrolment rises up and in the next year it decreases.

The increase in some years may be attributed to enrolment drive and sensitization of the community members. In the other hand, some of the factors attributed to the decrease include
i.    Non-payment of fees by parents
ii.    Children withdrawn to other districts
iii.    Drop-out
iv.    Migration by seasonal/settler farmers

Though enrolments at the basic school level are quite high, many pupils begin to drop in their academic progression. The gross enrolment rate for the 2005/06 academic year in basic schools is 66.62%, whist that of the SSS is 12.15%. A slightly higher percentage of males (51.4%) than females (48.6%) are currently in pre-school.  The pattern remains the same at all levels of the educational ladder. This portrays a disparity in gender and calls for pragmatic policies and programmes to encourage girls to attend school. The proportion of the population currently at the post-secondary level (8.63%) is the lowest with 0.8 attending tertiary institutions.

Staffing


The Municipality has a total number of 600 teachers. Fifty eight percent (43.8 %) of this number are trained. Most of the untrained teachers (56.2%) teach at the pre-school and primary school levels.  The large number of untrained staff at the basic level together with the low commitment of teachers and the unavailability of technical workshops to facilitate training has been the cause of unsatisfactory performance of pupils in the Basic Education Certificate.

 

School Feeding Programme


The Municipal Assembly is benefiting from the school feeding programme. Currently three schools are benefiting from the programme whilst four schools have been selected to benefit under the programme. The three schools are the Odurokrom L.A Primary school, Tweapease Presby Primary, Akwaboa No. 2 L/A Primary schools. The four schools that are yet to benefit from the programme includes, Aworokrom Presby School, Asukese L/A Primary school, Kyenkyenhene L/A Primary school and Gyaenkontabuo L.A Primary school. This policy has helped in raising enrolment levels in the beneficiary schools.

School Infrastructure and Utilities


The mere existence of schools is a key determinant of access to education. The municipality has 153 schools; this is made up of 88 primary schools, 20 Junior Secondary Schools (JSS), 42 kindergartens, two Senior Secondary, Technical and Vocational Schools.

Most of the educational facilities (87 %) are owned and managed by the government. In terms of location, Primary schools are the most widely distributed educational facilities in the municipality. Most of the communities have access to a primary school located either in the community or in a neighboring community. Most of the JSS and all the SSS are located in the only two urban centers of Goaso and Mim.

This implies that students from the rural areas have to either relocate to the towns or travel daily to these centres to pursue their post primary or post Junior Secondary School education. Due to the difficulties that this poses to them, there is a high dropout rate at the transitional level of moving from Junior Secondary School to Senior Secondary School and from Senior Secondary level to the post senior secondary level.

Most infrastructures of the primary schools in the municipality are in dilapidated state which needs urgent attention for rehabilitation. Most primary schools are found in make-shift structures or under pitched pavilions because of the unavailability of adequate accommodation facilities although, all the Junior Secondary School and Senior Secondary School have well-constructed and maintained buildings, not a single one of them has a workshop to facilitate technical trainings for pupils.  Furthermore, there are no libraries for the Junior Secondary School pupils.

Poor sanitary facilities also pose a serious problem to most schools in the municipality. In both the urban and rural areas, only 12 primary schools and 16 Junior Secondary School have access to latrines and urinals.  All Junior Secondary Schools in the municipality have access to potable water facilities either in the form of a borehole or hand pump or pipe borne. Presently, none of the existing basic schools have electricity. The inadequacy of office space for teachers is also a matter of concern in the Municipality.

Despite efforts being made so in the establishment of schools and the provision of school infrastructure more still needs to be done to improve access to education in the municipality. More schools are particularly needed in the rural communities where pupils walk long distances daily to nearby communities to access education. A lot more has to be done to improve the infrastructure of the existing schools to enable them deliver quality education.

Teacher – Pupil Ratio


The teacher-pupil ratio is an indicator used to assess the adequacy of teachers in relation to pupils. The current teacher-pupil ratio in the public schools in the   does not completely differ from the national standard teacher pupil ratios.

These numbers appear manageable and could enhance the attention given to pupils and students. This makes the classroom more conducive for learning as teachers would have ample time to address the individual academic problems of pupils and students

 


Date Created : 11/10/2017 7:24:02 AM