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Naba Johnson Awuni , the chief of  Yorogo, has condemned the concept of extra classes in schools after school hours saying it was not helpful to the pupils.

He said the children still performed abysmally in the basic school examination despite the hours extra tuition provided adding that there is the need for teachers and parents to step up their supervision.

Naba Awuni was speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the increasing poor performance in basic schools, and high drop- out rates stemming from lack of interest in learning.

He said such after school classes should be abolished and practical measures should be adopted by the schools to improve the performance of the pupils.

Naba Awuni, who is a retired educationist, said it was needless to detain primary one pupils after school hours to give them extra tuition that supposedly could not be given during school hours and urged parents of children in primary schools not to pay for such classes.

He said such efforts rather made the children tired as detaining them after regular school hours made them get home late, have less time for social interactions and are also unable to do any more studies.

Naba Awuni said the increasing poor performance of children at the BECE level in spite of the extra classes and high dropout rates from schools should provide food for thought.

He said “if a teacher is supposed to teach four lessons a day for instance and he does it well then there would be no need for extra classes”.

Naba Awuni called on the teachers to do effective teaching and urged parents to ensure that their children do their home-work and sleep early so as to get adequate rest and this is most important.

He said lack of the appropriate text books as well, hindered teaching and learning and this is seen in many children not being able to read and write.

Naba Awuni called on the Ghana Education Service to ensure that the right text books are supplied to the schools and urged teachers to utilize their lesson periods well to enhance the academic performance of the children.