BECE candidates to do two-hour extra classes

The Government had instituted a crash programme for all candidates of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), to do two extra hour classes to improve their performances.

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, announced this at Adukrom to climax the annual Odwira festival of the chiefs and people of Okere.

He said during that two extra hours, the candidates would be provided with a meal to make up for the time whiles the teachers taking part in the special assignment would be given additional packages as motivation.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said government had taken notice of the poor performance of candidates at the BECE and would ensure that measures were put in place to reverse that situation.

He said the intervention was in addition to the provision of free uniforms and exercise books to some selected schools in the remote and deprived areas, as well as the school feeding and the capitation grant to raise the standards of education.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said last year, government spent GH¢4 million on the free school uniforms program and had increased it to GH¢28 million in the 2012 budget to reach out to more people in the rural areas.

Similarly on the school feeding program, he said many schools had been rolled on to the programme and as a result many children were now benefiting from it.

He called on parents to also play their role well to complement government’s efforts since without their role all that government was putting in place would be in vain.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo expressed worry over the use of mobile phones by children in the night during the free call times at the expense of learning.

The minister said that practice was not helping the children in school because they used the classes hours to sleep to make up for their failure to sleep at nights and urged parents to check that practice.

The Akuapem North District Chief Executive, Mr George Opare-Addo, announced that the assembly had instituted a programme called ‘one graduate per family’ to ensure that at least every family in the district had one graduate.

Under the programme, he explained that the assembly would sponsor any person who was brilliant from the Senior High School (SHS) through to the University to improve education in the area and called for the support of the chiefs and all stakeholders.

Source: GNA