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Tertiary students in the Upper West Region have been called upon to revisit the past practice of organizing free extra classes for the younger ones as a way of helping to improve declining standards of education in the region.

The absence of this opportunity, which was well patronized by both basic and second cycle students is blamed for being partially responsible for the continuous decline in the region’s education performance.

Mr Amidu Chinnia Issahaku, Deputy Upper West Regional Minister made the call during the 2019 International Youth Day Celebration organized by the National Youth Authority (NYA) in Wa.

According to him, free extra classes in the past was a practice tertiary level students from the region loved to spend their leisure time on in order to help their younger ones to excel academically.

“Unfortunately, these days even in the same house, the older ones claim they are so busy to the extent that they cannot assist their younger ones to learn how to read or complete their homework”, Mr. Issahaku said.

He said if the youth wanted to actualize the sub-theme: “Transforming Quality Education Delivery in the Upper West Region: The Role of the Youth”, then there was the need to revisit the past.

“Let us re-organize ourselves and hold free extra classes for our young ones to excel and become responsible future leaders”, the Deputy Minister said.

Mr Issahaku indicated that provision of quality education was a shared responsibility of which government was playing its part by providing infrastructure, recruiting and remunerating teachers to teach the children.

“If we fail to provide quality education to the youth of today, then, we are failing to provide the requisite human resource for the future”, he said and noted that young people could become a threat to society if their capacities were not built in the right direction.

The Deputy Minister, therefore, admonished parents not to focus on ensuring success for their children alone, but rather to all children, pointing out that the failure of another parent to ensure success for the child becomes a threat to society in general.

“This is why we must all come together to support government to ensure the successful implementation of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy so that all children can become successful through education in order that society becomes free of miscreants”, he said.

Mr Issahaku noted that the public sector could not contain up to 30 percent of the young ones that were willing to work which called for skills-based training for the youth to create their own businesses and earn a decent living out of that.

He said government through the Business Development Ministry was creating such an enabling business environment in the country to enable younger ones take advantage to grow their business ideas and become employers instead of job seekers.