Member of Parliament for the Gomoa West constituency in the Central Region, Richard Gyan-Mensah has donated 50,000 pieces of exercise books to students across the constituency.

Taking receipt of the books on behalf of the District Education Directorate, the director, Madam Cecilia Aboagye took advantage of the presentation to bemoan the declining performance of candidates in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the district.

She explained that the lack of infrastructure in the District drives teachers including newly posted ones away from the District which largely affects academic activities in the area.

“I have been here for six months now and the report that came to me was that teachers are just leaving and my officers didn’t understand why the teachers were leaving and at the time of my arrival, the attrition rate was 325 but it is more than 450 now and that is affecting the District a lot and it is affecting the performance of candidates in the BECE.”

“When the teachers come here, they complain about the roads leading to the various villages, accommodation problems, and economic activities within the District so the teachers rush to Kasoa and Winneba where they get nice accommodations and engage in economic activities after school,” she further elaborated.

The constituency’s lawmaker said he had taken personal initiatives aimed at resolving the high teacher attrition rate and have other options in stock if his lobbying to the NSS for teachers fails.

“I have made efforts to the National Service Secretariat to post teachers who are yet to serve the service to the constituency. The next step I am going to embark on is to write to the University of Education, Winneba, and the teacher training colleges around here so that the teacher trainees who are doing their teaching practice can be posted here in the interim.”