LaDMEO ORGANISES SPAM AT ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Tags: Education, Teaching

LaDMEO ORGANISES SPAM AT ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

The La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Education Directorate on 25 February organised a symposium called Student Performance Appraisal Meeting (SPAM), at the premises of the St. Thomas Aquinas Senior High School. The meeting, which was first of its kind by Education Department of the LaDMA, drew together teachers, heads of department and students from Labone SHS, Armed Forces Technical School, La Presec and St. Thomas Aquinas. Notable Personalities such the Municipal Chief Executive Hon. Rita Odoley Sowah, Regional Education Director Felicia Boakye Yiadom,LaDMEO Director Madame Bernice Addae, chairperson for the occasion Nii Yemoh Din II and Assembly Members from the Municipality .

In her opening address, the Regional Education Director madam Felicia Boakye Yiadom praised the leadership of LaDMEO for putting together such a special platform to give attention to the performance of students in their forthcoming WASSCE Exams. In that regard, a special mention was given to St.Thomas Aquinas for coming top in the regional ranking last year. She also advocated for an alternative punishment to corporal punishment. On the back of the cancellation of examination papers last year, the Director of Education admonished students to shun examination malpractices and stop taking phones to the examination hall. Madame Felicia pleaded with teachers to pay attention to the moral upbringing of the students. She advised that, Senior High School is to equip students for both future employment and adulthood, hence the need to monitor the activities of learners in schools. The education department made a presentation of WASSCE results in the last three years to identify strengths and weaknesses in the four core subjects namely English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies. During the presentation, it was revealed that performance in Maths, English and Science has being mixed up. For instance in 2013 one of the school recorded 9.5 % A1 in science but there was sharp decrease in 2014 to 4.3%. In 2014 social studies records 25.2% A1 and increased to 30.8 in 2015. Generally majority of students failed in maths and science.

“Some of the students show lack of concentration in mathematics and science because they believed those subjects are difficult” — Teacher from St.Thomas Aquinas

“The kind of students selected for the science course are mostly not qualified. This makes teaching very difficult for teachers. Lack of logistics also demotivates both teachers and students.” — Teacher from La Presec.

“Some of the students concentrate on science and maths at the detriment of social studies, hence there is a decline in performance of social studies. “ — Teacher from Armed Forces.

The municipal education director Madam Bernice Addea bemoaned that, majority of pupils who graduate from the basic schools are not well prepared to quickly adapt to the courses at the second cycle institutions. The Municipal Chief Executive Hon. Rita Odoley Sowah also expressed delight at the opportunity given her to meet and address the challenges leading to the fallen standards of SHS education in the municipality. She advised students to take advantage of the counselling unit in their schools to help them make the right choices in the courses they want to pursue.