Participants at the just ended fourth Western Regional Educational Sector Annual Review Meeting, have proposed to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies and traditional authorities to enact bye-laws or put in place measures to prevent children from attending wake keepings and other social activities at night, as a way of raising academic performance in their areas.
They noted that some children roam the streets and attend funerals and other social activities at night at the expense of their studies and this accounts for poor performance of pupils in the Basic Education Certificate
Examination (BECE) and other examinations.
The participants said the government has made education free at the basic level and is implementing programmes such as the School Feeding Programme and the Capitation Grant to enable more children to attend school, but some parents and guardians are not playing their expected roles in the education of their children.
They called on the districts assemblies and traditional authorities to enact byelaws to make it compulsory for parents and guardians to send their children to school to support the Free, Compulsory, Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) Programme.
The participants said the assemblies should also provide good and decent accommodation for kindergartens which are now part of basic schools
as many kindergartens do not have good infrastructure and to provide toilet facilities for all schools to assist to improve environmental and sanitation standards in their areas.
They called on technical institutions to liaise with the oil companies to design academic courses to meet the needs of the country's emerging on oil and gas industry and to enable students to undertake practical attachment at the oil companies.