STATISTICS
Education Facilities in the District
Table 1.29 shows the ownership and various levels of educational institutions in the district.
There are 42 educational institutions in the district, out of which 32 (76.2%) are public schools while 10 representing 23.8 percent are private schools. For all the levels of education, more than 76 percent are publicly owned, except for Technical and Vocational institutions which are 100 percent owned and managed by private individuals. Primary level is the highest with 35 facilities, followed by preschool with 32 facilities.
Numbers of school in the district
| Level | Public School | Private School | Total | |||
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| Pre- School | 24 | 34.8 | 9 | 36.0 | 33 | 35.1 |
| Primary School | 24 | 34.8 | 9 | 36.0 | 33 | 35.1 |
| JHS | 20 | 29.0 | 6 | 24.0 | 26 | 27.7 |
| SHS | 1 | 1.4 | – | – | 1 | 1.1 |
| Tec/Voc | – | – | 1 | 4.0 | 1 | 1.1 |
| Total | 69 | 100 | 25 | 100 | 94 | 100 |
Source: BSD GES EMIS, 2021
School Enrolment
Table 1.30 shows that a total enrolment for 2019/2020 academic year is 12485. The level with the highest enrolment is Primary constituting 48.9 percent and the level with the least enrolment is Technical/Vocation is 0.3 percent. Enrolment in primary school is twice as much as enrolment in JHS. In general, enrolment decreases with higher education level. If this trend continues, the quantity of indigenous skilled labour will dwindle.
Out of the total enrolment of 12485, 20883 constitute enrolment in public schools and the remaining 5,765 constitute enrolment in private schools. Total male enrolment of 13,761 constitutes 51.6 percent of total enrolment compared to 48.4 percent (12,885) are females.
There is a need for all stakeholders to improve and maintain enrolment in JHS and Senior High Schools. Technical/Vocational school should be developed and made attractive in order to absorb the pupils who do not have interest in senior high schools.
School enrolments in the district
| LEVEL | ENROLMENT (2020/2021 ACADEMIC YEAR) | |||||||||
| PUBLIC | PRIVATE | GRAND TOTAL | % | |||||||
| M | F | T | M | F | T | M | F | T | ||
| PRE- SCHOOL | 933 | 827 | 1760 | 630 | 592 | 1222 | 1563 | 1419 | 2982 | |
| PRIMARY | 2192 | 1986 | 4178 | 669 | 642 | 1311 | 2861 | 2628 | 5489 | |
| JHS | 953 | 911 | 1864 | 158 | 142 | 300 | 1111 | 1053 | 2164 | |
| SHS | 1376 | 1405 | 2781 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1376 | 1405 | 2781 | |
| TEC/VOC | N/A | N/A | N/A | – | 15 | 15 | – | 15 | 15 | |
| TOTAL | 5454 | 5129 | 10583 | 1457 | 1391 | 2848 | 6911 | 6520 | 13431 | 100 |
Source: BSD GES EMIS 2021
Staffing of Teachers in the District
Table 1.31, shows that staffing position in the various levels of public schools in the district. The table indicates that there are a total of 353 teaching staff in public schools, out of this number, 167 are females. The table also shows that there are 307 trained teachers and 46 untrained teachers.
Staffing position in Public schools
| Level | Staff at Post | No. of Trained Teachers | No. of Untrained Teachers | Total | |
| Male | Female | ||||
| KG | 5 | 56 | 48 | 13 | 61 |
| Primary | 100 | 79 | 155 | 24 | 179 |
| JHS | 81 | 32 | 104 | 9 | 113 |
| SHS | 89 | 32 | N/A | N/A | 121 |
| 186 | 167 | 307 | 46 | 353 | |
Source: EMIS GES BSD, 2021
The staffing situation in public schools is quite the opposite of the private schools in terms of gender and skills. Table 1.32, shows the staffing position in the various levels of private schools in the District. Out of the total of 72 teachers in private schools, 41 are females. The table also indicates that there are more untrained teachers (56) than trained teachers (16). The implication is that the quality of teaching and learning private schools will be affected.
Staffing Position in Private Schools
| Level | Staff at Post | No. of Trained Teachers | No. of Untrained Teachers | Total | |
| Male | Female | ||||
| KG | 1 | 20 | 3 | 18 | 21 |
| Primary | 8 | 12 | 4 | 16 | 20 |
| JHS | 22 | 9 | 9 | 22 | 31 |
| TVET | – | 2 | N/A | N/A | 2 |
| Total | 31 | 41 | 16 | 56 | 72 |
Source: EMIS GES BSD, 2021
Access and Participation to Education
The indicators used to measure participation and accesses to education in the district are Gross Enrolment Ratio, Net Enrolment Ratio and Gender Parity Index. The table shows that the GER decreases as the level of education increases. The GER which is less than 100 percent at all levels indicate that district is not able to accommodate all the school age population for all the levels. The NER gives a more precise measurement of the extent of participation in the KG, Primary, JHS and SHS of children belonging to the official ages of these levels of education. The table shows that 46.8 percent of the population of persons of official primary school age enrolled and only 23.0 percent persons of official JHS age are enrolled. The NER at all the levels shows that more than 40 percent of persons of official school age are out of school. There is the need to improve enrolment at all levels in the district.
Except for the KG, where the number of girls enrolled are more than boys, the Gender parity index indicates that the number of boys enrolled in are more than girls in all the levels even though the margin is less than 10 percent.
| Indicators
Level of Education |
Gross Enrolment Ratio | Net Enrolment Ratio | Gender Parity Index | Pupil-Teacher Ratio |
| KG | 75.6 | 46.9 | 0.98 | 24:1 |
| Primary | 61.2 | 46.8 | 1.01 | 17:1 |
| JHS | 48.3 | 23.0 | 0.99 | 11:1 |
| SHS | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Source: EMIS GES BSD, 2020
Locational Map of the Educational Facilities in the District.
Energy
Electricity, LPG and fuel wood are the main sources of energy in the District. LPG and fuel wood are used for cooking and small scale industrial and commercial activities while electricity is used for lightning. The district has two (2) LPG supply points in Swedru and Asawase. The fuel feeling stations is located in Swedruand two more are under construction in the district capital. The District has over 96% coverage in terms of electricity supply.
The built environment deals with human settlements, other built-up areas and man-made activities. AkimSwedru, which is the most urbanized settlement, followed by Awisa, Aduasa, Apaaso, and Asawase. Majority of the land is covered by trees and grasses.
Land use map of the District, DPCU 2021
Resource endowment in the District, DPCU 2021.
1.3.16
1.3.5 Natural and man-made disasters
Climate change has brought about a dramatic change in the weather pattern in Birim South District resulting in unusual rainstorms, flash floods and bushfires which often leave in their trials destruction to livelihoods and vital socio economic infrastructure such as houses, schools, roads bridges and crops. The most common disasters in the district include:
- Flooding
- Ripping of roofs and collapse of building by rainstorm
- Destruction of farms by rainstorm and bushfires, locust invasion
- Epidemics. (i.e. cholera)
The district counts on scarce equipment and personnel to confront any sudden disaster. The fire department do not have adequate infrastructure such as fire hydrants. Measures set in place to prevent occurrence of the disaster in the district include:
- Embarking on massive tree planting to serve as windbreaks and improve the vegetative cover.
- Enforcing building regulation to reduce the occurrence of indiscriminate building in risky areas or in risky conditions
- Adhering to early warning systems:
- January to March: Bush Fire Occurrence period
- April to June: Diarrhea, Malaria peak period, flooding
- July to September: Cholera peak period
- October to March: Cerebral Spinal Meningitis (CSM)
Disaster map of Birim South District, DPCU 2021.