Out of a total of 1, 704 candidates from 60 junior high schools(JHS) in the Dormaa Central Municipality who registered for the Basic Education Certificate Examination(BECE) in 2014, 1, 638 passes while 52 candidates failed.
The records indicate that 96.92 per cent of the pupils passed the examination.
Fourteen candidates were absent during the examination while, 1, 690 were present.
Mr Edwards Nsiah, Municipal Director of Education, said this at heads of department meeting at Dormaa-Ahenkro.
In the West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE), he said, a total of 574 candidates registered in the Municipality. There was 100 per cent general pass rate of the candidates, and 91.3 per cent of the candidates passing six or more subjects.
He observed that there is the need for the municipality to embark on an enrolment drive at the various levels of education to attain the national target.
Mr Nsiah said the area recorded an enrolment rate of 72 per cent at the JHS and 43 per cent recorded at the senior high school levels(SHS) as compared to the national target of 105 per cent JHS and 100 per cent for SHS.
He underscored the need for intensification of educational campaigns since most of the dropouts are females who failed to complete their education at the various levels.
Mr Nsiah stated that although the national targets for completion of education at the various levels are 100 per cent for primary and JHS, 40 per cent for SHS, the completion rate in the municipality with respect to primary school education is 78 per cent.
He said the completion rate at JHS was 58.5 per cent and 14.8 per cent at the SHS, adding: ?We need to intensify our educational campaigns as most of the dropouts are females?, he emphasised.
He enumerated a number of challenges facing his outfit includes teachers commuting from Dormaa ? Ahenkro to schools in distant towns and lack of access of JHS in some communities.
Others include inadequate trained teachers, lack of funds and logistics to run the municipal directorate of education in order to embark on effective supervision in school, failure of some parents to recognise the importance of education by enrolling their wards in schools and lack of permanent office accommodation and staff bungalow.
He said his outfit would intensify its monitoring and supervision in schools, conduct BECE and WASSCE examination devoid of cheating and examination malpractices, open new community JHSs, improve school accessibility to pupils, replace untrained teachers and organise inter-school quiz competition.
The rest are whipping up interest for girl-child education in schools and strengthening the partnership between the schools and the community through regular parent-teacher association/school management committee meetings.
GNA
