Falling standards in education worrying — Ho West MP warns

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho-West Constituency, Mr Emmanuel Bedzrah, has said a more holistic front is needed to arrest declining educational standards in the country.

He said falling standards were a worry to all in the society and that it demanded sacrifice and voluntary service to be able to restore high standards and lost glory.

Mr Bedzrah said this when he addressed 32 volunteers of the Volta Region Students Association (VORSA) drawn from tertiary institutions after they completed a three -week community work in 10 schools in the Ho-West District at Dzolokpuita on Thursday.

He noted that voluntary spirit was dying in the country.  He, therefore, lauded the sacrificial spirit of the students and said their presence had injected a new spirit for learning in pupils.

He noted that the student volunteers also devoted same time to guidance and counselling for students in senior high schools on the choice of subjects and the courses they intend to pursue at higher levels.

Mr Bedzrah commended the chiefs and communities in Ho-West District for embracing the programme and announced that there was a proposal to formalise the community work programme in all 26 constituencies in the region to help improve educational standards.

In a speech read on his behalf, the Ho-West District Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Ewoade, said the students had demonstrated self -help spirit towards the betterment of education, adding that examination results had taken a nose dive in recent times and that indicated that standards had fallen in schools.

He urged them to exhibit that spirit wherever they went and not to forget to return to the district.

The District Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Seth Ayivi Torsuh, commended the volunteers for venturing into areas which were hitherto not attractive to teachers.

He said the district directorate had launched an exercise to reinforce and reappraise the system to reverse the falling standards, adding that their inputs  to help to regenerate enthusiasm in learning were appreciated.

The President of VORSA, Mr Amos Dela Yegbe, disclosed that inadequate reading materials, lack of knowledge on information communication technology (ICT) and insufficient computers, lack of parental interest and lack of accommodation for teachers at their stations were some of the flaws noted during the period of the community work.

He pledged on behalf of his colleagues to join in the crusade of reversing falling standards which was of most concern to the leadership of the region.

For his part, the president of Ho-West Youth Parliament, Mr Charles Sefiamor Klu, said it was a project that had been adopted for the district to strengthen the foundation for good learning and teaching and advised that it should not be misconstrued as teachers were not doing their best.

He said the youth parliament was a group in the Ho-West constituency that would collaborate with all organisations such as VORSA to rally support for development in the constituency.