The Head of Basic Education for Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Volta Region, Togbe Dzidoah I, has expressed worry about the low turnout in the number of pupils who took part in this year’s vetting for the President’s Independence Day Awards.
Since its inception in 1993, the President’s Independence Day Awards celebrate pupils from each of the ten regions of Ghana, who have performed creditably in their Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE).
Each year, two deserving students; a male and a female from each region, are awarded on the eve of the Independence Day Celebrations. However Togbe Dzidoah observed that, unlike previous years, most pupils eligible to represent the Volta Region in the National Awards have failed to turnout for the last vetting exercise. This he said was unfortunate, as it raises questions about the quality of students needed to represent the Volta Region.
He said although they expected about 50 students to take part in the final selection, barely half of the number turned out with most their district coordinators exhibiting poor preparedness towards the exercise. “Out of the 25 districts that we have in the Volta region, 14 districts attended the programme. We had a total of 28 students; a boy and a girl each from a district.
It is a sad situation because it was an opportunity for the young ones to get selected. And in this case we want the best to represent our region so if you don’t get the total number of people that should be part of this exercise, definitely it would affect the quality of the materials we are presenting as our ambassadors.”
He said although adequate information had been conveyed to the various directorates of education, he cannot readily tell what accounted for the low patronage towards the exercise.
He added that, he would in consultation with the Regional Director of Education probe further into the matter for necessary action to be taken. One of the participants who completed Vehem Mawunyo International School in Dzodze, and currently a student of Mawuli Senior High School, Godwin Kofi Danyo, told Citi News he was hopeful he would emerge as one of the awardees.
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