District Chief Executive Officer for Fanteakwa North, Charles Oware- Tweneboah has cautioned parents against spending huge sums of money on funeral ceremonies.
According to the District Chief Executive, residents in his district devote more time, resources, energy and attention to organising funerals to the detriment of their children.
Mr Charles Oware-Tweneboah who condemned the actions of these parents in an interview with Citi News called on all parents to cut down on funeral expenses and invest more in educating their children.
“I believe it is time for us to educate our people, in my district we concentrate too much on funerals and accommodation in terms of rooms is woefully inadequate, you will see a large number of people living in the same room so you can imagine how the kids will be able to read and learn because there is no space for them.”
“I am a native of this town and I know when there are funerals here the amount of money we spend on them is unimaginable, we spend too much money on the dead and I do not understand why we have to go to that length to spend on someone who will not return back to this world. The women especially spend a lot on funerals at the expense of their children’s education and this is not the way to go as a community in this 21st century.”
Mr Owusu- Tweneboah that BECE results of Junior High school students in his district have not been encouraging.
“When I assumed duty the results I had from the BECE in 2017 was not encouraging at all, it was around 51 percent, and it came down to 49.1 percent in 2018, so I am very worried, and every District Chief Executive Officer in my position should be worried about the drop in the educational ladder but through Koica and World Vision I have seen improvement now, and it is time for parents to also support this initiative.”
He added, “We need to give the children room, space to learn and have access to documents like graphic, books and literary words to be able to read and learn, I want everyone in my district to think about education first before any other thing and when we are able to invest in the future our kids in this district we will not regret”.
The District Director of Education for Fanteakwa, Felly Jacob Laweh called on parents to continue to engage and encourage their children to take part in the after-school clubs.
“Previously the situation was not encouraging, but with the help of World Vision Ghana and Koica the after-school reading clubs have come to stay, and this also involves parents participation so I will entreat every parent to ensure their wards take part in the after-school reading clubs and also help them at home to read the books they borrow from the book banks to help boost their confidence”.
