399 CANDIDATES IN SISSALA WEST FAIL IN BECE (PAGE 20, OCT 9)

THREE hundred and ninety-two, out of a total of 676 candidates from the Sissala West District who wrote this year’s Basic Examination Certificate Examination (BECE), failed.
The failures comprised 224 females and 175 males.
The Sissala West District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Robert Wavei, who disclosed this to the Daily
Graphic, expressed concern about the trend, and said even though the results were generally bad, the picture looked very gloomy for the district.
“Coupled with the abysmal performance in the BECE, representing 41.52 per cent failures, as many as 119 schoolgirls also became pregnant between January and August, this year,” the DCE added.
Addressing the second ordinary meeting of the Sissala West District at Gwolu, Mr Wavei took a special view at the BECE results and called on all stakeholders, including parents, to come on board to improve the situation.
He said if the trend continued, then the district had no future.
The DCE, therefore, outlined a number of measures the assembly was initiating to motivate stakeholders of education in the district.
They included institution of a best teacher award, an award for the school with the best BECE results as well as an award for best students in the respective subjects, among others.
On the number of teenage pregnancies, Mr Wavei linked the situation to the number of dropouts from the BECE and challenged health personnel in the area to step up their campaign on family planning.
He said the number of malnourished children, which stood at 52, from January to August, this year, was also not the best for the growth of children in the area.
As part of measures to improve the anomalies in the health sector which have been dubbed “Operation save a life”, Mr Wavei directed all heads of departments to respond to calls by health workers to release their vehicles to transport patients from one health facility to the other.
He said the district assembly would reserve fuel for that purpose and, therefore, any departmental head who flouted the directive would be sanctioned.
 The Upper West Regional Minister, Mr Mahmud Khalid, who graced the occasion, appealed to parents to be conscious of the eating habits of their wards as a first step towards reducing malnutrition.
He also urged the assembly to put to good use the district development fund of GH¢361,575.51 Ghana allotted to it, stressing, “You must also institute stringent measures to block the loopholes through which the assembly’s revenue leaked”.