At a forum organised at Have by the office of the Member of Parliament for Afadzato South, Madam Angela Tay, to draw a path towards addressing the challenge, the citizens, including school pupils, agreed to play their part towards improving education.

The District scored 37 per cent pass in the 2018 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE), which was unacceptable.

Mr Wisdom Seneadza, the District Chief Executive, said most pupils could not read and that the District had taken the "implications seriously".

"The performance is a big problem and has a damaging effect on the District. We need a monumental effort to climb out of the situation", he said.

Mr Seneadza said teenage pregnancy had been identified as a major cause of decline in academic performance, explaining that most school children had parents who were still youths and could, therefore, not impart the needed discipline for academic excellence.

He said traditional leaders must put measures in place to reduce the rate of underage pregnancies and promised the readiness of the Assembly to work and reverse the trend in record time.

"We need to put politics aside and synchronise all efforts and programmes towards improving education in the District," the DCE said.

Mr Seneadza said the Assembly was actively supporting the Education Directorate, having recently relocated to ensure efficiency.

He said a reading commitee had also been set up and extra classes for students in the final year had been initiated.

Mr Seneadza said it would be necessary for individuals and organisations to adopt some of the schools and that the Assembly would support teachers to enhance their skills, and prayed the latter showed commitment to improving education.

Madam Angela Tay described the recent BECE results in the District as "embarrassing" and promised to provide the necessary resources for the improvement of education, calling on all to work "hand in hand".

Nana Kugbeadzor II, the District Director of Education, said the demography of the area challenged its progress in education and that measures would be put in place to prevent the exploitation of children, especially the girls.

Some teachers at the forum said school hours were not enough and called for extra classes to improve contact hours with pupils. 

The MP presented refrigerators to 30 teachers serving in difficult to reach areas and also gave them certificates of recognition.

The MP's office introduced the "Assessment for Improving Leaning" programme in the area and also established reading clubs to help improve the literacy rate.