I would be very grateful if you could give me some space in your paper to share my view on the progress of education in the Northern Region.

Education in the northern part of Ghana compared to the southern part started late, but governments and other civil society organizations over the years have contributed to improve the standard of education in the Northern/Upper Regions.

The preliminary Education Sector Performance Report 2005, states that, between 2001-2002 and 2004-2005, enrolment in the Northern Region increased from 228,660 to 271,233.The enrolment growth rate for this period was therefore 18.6 percent. A large proportion of this growth was due to increased female enrolments, which increased from 96,746 to 122,492, a growth rate of 26.6 pecent, outstripping the male growth rate of 12.8 percent for the period under review.

The number of primary schools in Ghana presently stands at 16,760, 714 more than last year. Out of this, 1,642 constitute the number of primary schools in the Northern Region. 1,536 are public schools constituting 94 percent of the schools, while 106 are private schools, thus 6 percent.

In the area of quality education, the region has made marginal progress; therefore, there is much work to be done. The national percentages of passes in the SSCE in 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 are 41, 46, 47 and 64 percent respectively. The Northern Region however recorded 5,390 (18 percent) passes in 6-8 subjects in 2001; 5,496 thus (24.5 percent) passes in 6-8 subjects in 2002 and 5,666 (23 percent) passes in 6-8 subjects in 2003.

From these statistics, the Northern Region fell at the bottom in the regional rankings with passes of only 18, 24.5 and 23 percent in 2001, 2002 and 2003 respectively.

At the BECE level, the figure in the Northern Region is below the national average at 51.1 percent, that is the percentage of candidates gaining aggregate 6-30 in the 2003-2004 year. The BECE exam is structured so as to ensure that approximately 60 percent each year gain this aggregate grade 6-30.

In the area of teachers, the actual primary school qualified teachers as a percentage of teaching force in the region stood at 58.50 percent in the 2002-2003; 52.20 percent in 2003-2004 and 51.60 in 2004-2005, while the pupil teacher ratio stood at 36.3 percent in 2002-2003, 38.6 percent in 2003-2004 and 40.2 percent in 2004-2005.

The statistics above show that, the Northern Region still shows significantly worse indicators than other areas of the country. Strong consideration should be given to prioritizing the targeting of these areas for re-deployment and in-service teacher upgrading courses. Luckily the upgrading courses for the pupil teachers is in progress and I hope this will help upgrade the professional flair of the pupil teachers.

Though there has been some progress in terms of access and quality in the Northern Region, as a matter of fact much more effort is needed from the relevant agencies in educational development in the Northern Region to bring the region at par with other parts of the country Abubakari Alhassan Lamashegu Primary B School, Tamale.

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