Who We Are
Location and Land Area
Bole District Assembly is established by LI 1786. It was carved out of the Ganja West District in 2004. Bole District is situated between latitudes 8’10.5 and 09’ and longitude 1.50E’ and 2.45 W. It is located at the extreme western part of the Northern region of Ghana and bordered to the North by the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, to the West by the Republic of Cote D`ivoire with the Black Volta being the boundary between the two neighboring countries, to the East by the West Ganja District, to the South-east by the Kintampo Municipal and the South-West by the Wenchi Municipal in Brong Ahafo Region. The Bole district covers an area of 6,169.2-kilometer square, out of the area of 69,766.2-kilometer square of the Northern region. This shows that, Bole district covers Nine percent (9.0%) of the total land area in the region.
From the 2010 census, the Bole district has a population of 61,593 comprising 51.4 percent of males and 49.6 percent of females. The population is sparsely distributed with a population density of about 10 persons per kilometer square.
VISION
Thrive to become a model Municipality in the country where quality and standard essential services are delivered in a more transparent and accountable manner.
MISSION
The Bole District Assembly exists to ensure that living standards of the people in the District are improved through effective coordination of resources to provide the needed quality services.
GOALS
The broad goal of the Bole District Assembly is to ensure that the socio-economic development and living standard of the people are enhanced.
CORE FUNCTIONS
The core functions of the Bole District Assembly are outlined below:
- Exercise political and administrative authority in the district by providing guidance, give direction to, and supervise the administrative authorities in the district.
- Performs deliberative, legislative and executive functions
- Shall be responsible for the overall development of the district
- Shall formulate and execute plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilization of the resources necessary for the overall development of the district;
- Shall promote and support productive activity and social development in the district and remove any obstacles to initiative and development
- Shall initiate programmes for the development of basic infrastructure and provide municipal works and services in the district.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Issuance of Building Permits
- Issuance of Business Operating License
- Waste Management
- Revenue Mobilization
- Fixing of Rates
- Births and Deaths Registration
- Issuance of Food Vendors Certificate
- Support to Persons with Disability
- Provision of Basic-Socio Economic Infrastructure
- Facilitation of Provision of Water
- Maintenance of Peace and Security
Vegetation
The vegetation of the district consists of Savannah wood land, with economic trees such as sheanut, dawadawa, teak, kapok and mango. These trees support the socioeconomic lives of the people when they are processed.
Soils
There are various kinds of soils in the district that support plant growth. The main types of soils include Savannah ochrosols, tropical brown earth and terrace soils. The Savannah ochrosols are generally poor in organic matter and nutrient because of the absence of dense vegetation caused by bush burning, overgrazing and poor farming practices in the district. It is important to note that, the tropical brown earth is suitable for mechanized farming. The terrace soils occur along rivers and suitable for grain crops and tobacco.
Cultural and Social Structure
The major ethnic groups in the Bole district include: Gonja, Vagla, Safalba and Mo. It is worth noting that, there are migrant ethnic groups such as Brifor, Lobi and Dagaaba whose main occupation has been subsistence farming. Major festivals celebrated in the district are the Deng, Damba, Jintigi, Achan, Eleishi and the Kachunu. All the ethnic groups that can be found in the district practice patrilineal system of inheritance (i. e from father to child).
Economy
The district has an agrarian economy which is indicative of the large quantity of agricultural products produced every year. With a favorable environment, suitable intervention measures can result in the area being a food basket of the region. A wide variety of crops are cultivated such as maize, yam, cassava, guinea corn, and groundnuts. Marketing of agricultural produce is quite challenging since there are three (3) main markets. Inter district trade with the neighboring districts such as the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba, Wa and the southern parts of the country is quite encouraging. Petty trading is concentrated at Bole, Bamboi and Tinga.
Tourism
The district has a number of tourism potentials which if developed can open up the area to tourists. Some of these include: The Deng festival in Sonyo celebrated annually (May); the Sonyor architectural & lifestyle festival, the Hippo Sanctuary in Ntereso, Mankuma royal mausoleum where the Kings of Gonja Kingdom are buried, Damba festival held six months after the Moslem fasting, Bui gorge located at the southern part of the district and historical Mosques at Bole, Maluwe and Banda Nkwanta, Kadeo festival held on the 26th /27th day of the annual Ramadan fasting, the Seidublay festival held between April & May every year, Jintigi festival characterized by the remembrance of the ancestors. Even though the district has a number of tourism potentials many of these sites need to be developed and well organized if they are to attract many more tourists into the district.
Mining and Quarrying
Illegal small-scale mining activities (“galamsey”) has in recent times assumed an unproportioned dimension never experienced in the economic life of the district. Kui, Tinga, Dakrupe, Banda Nkwanta, Gbombiri, and “Camp” are now settlements with migrant populations in their thousands, coming from all parts of the country including some neighbouring countries like Burkina Faso, Togo, Mali, and Nigeria. This has brought about security concerns in recent times with armed robbery on the increase in the district, prostitution on the increase in an era of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections which put a lot of pressure on the few health facilities in the district.
Population Size and Distribution
Population size, composition and age-sex structure are important characteristics that have many social and economic implications on the welfare of people. The population composition by age and sex influences mortality, fertility, migration and other demographic processes that underlie population growth and ultimately socioeconomic development. This chapter discusses the population distribution by age, sex and locality. It also presents data on sex ratios, fertility, and mortality levels.
Bole district recorded a population of 61,593 comprising 31,022 males and 30,571 females. The population is sparsely distributed with a density of 10.0 persons per square kilometers compared to the population of 35.2 persons per square kilometers for the region. The current population of the District stands at 73,241 from the projection of growth rate of 2.5% from the 2010 Population census.
Education
Human Resource Development And Basic Services
Bole secondary School is the only senior secondary school in the District. Student population during the period under review stood at 673-There are 23 pre-school educational facilities, 45 primary schools, 15 Junior Secondary schools and 2 Vocational institutes. Almost all the schools are government-owned except 2 pre-schools 1 primary school and 1 vocational institute in Bamboi.
Education Performance at Kindergarten Level
1.It has been observed that, GER, MGER and FGER has increased tremendously from 2003/04- 2004/05 (33.3%-80.2%) given a difference of 46.9%.
2.FGER equally increased from 32.5% to 81.0% in 2004/05 indicating a difference of 48.5%
3.GPI also increased from 0.96% to 1.0% in 2003/04-2004/05
4.Due to the creation of the Sawla-Tuna-Kalba District, gross enrolment has reduced to 46.2%
5.This high performance of enrolment is due to the introduction of the Capitation Grant and the abolishing of the payment of school fees.
6.In terms of quality in the KGs teacher population is woefully inadequate
7.PTR in 2003/04 is 90:1 instead of the national pupil to teacher of 25:1 whilst in 2004/05PTR rose tremendously to 257:1. This is due to the high enrollment Despite the creation of STK District. PTR in 2005/06 is still as high as 84:1
8.In the KG despite the shortage of teachers, only 15.8% in 2003/04, 8.8% in 2004/05 are trained whilst as high as 91.2% are untrained.
9.On infrastructural development, only 26 out of 45 primary schools have KGs attached. This represents 57.8% of primary schools with KGs attached.
Educational Performance at Primary Level
Progress was made in Drop-Out rate from Primary to JSS 2003 2004 2005
Transition 113 Absolute figs
- Boys 64
- Girls 49
- Total 113
Pupil-Teacher ratio at Primary Level:
At the primary level, it is about 30% below the national ratio.
Primary Level 03/04 04/05 05/06
Pupil-Teacher ratio 16:1 35:1 49:1
For years 2004/2005 and 2005/2006 it had been 35:1 and 49:1 as against the national ratio of 25:1
Absolute Figure 03/04 04/05 05/06
Trained Teachers 194 124 83
Untrained Teachers 129 331 247
GENDER AND GROSS ENROLLMENT RATE
PERFORMANCE AT THE PRIMARY LEVEL
Gender and Gross Enrollment
- It is clear that GER, FGER and MGER are even worse than the primary. With GER of 16.1 and 16.8 in 2003 and 2004 respectively.
- More of the pupil’s dropout of school before JSS level.
- Comparing MGER and FGER there is a big gap between male and female enrolment. (29.3% as against 13.5%) Causes may be due to early marriages, teenage pregnancies, desire for worldly gains and other cultural practices. In terms of quality, PTR is not encouraging as well at the JSS level. In 2003/04 PTR stood at 1:56, 1:60 in 2004/05 and 1:67 in 2005/06 comparing this to the national PTR of l:25
- Percentage of trained teachers at the JSS level is Encouraging as compared to the other levels
- In 2003/04 78% of the teachers were trained while 69.0% were trained teachers in 2005/06
- Physically, 1 out of 15, and also 5 out of 53 classrooms representing 33.3% have toilet facilities. JSS in 2005/06 has a workshop.
Bece Performance.
The situation was appalling.
2003 2004 2005
Aggregate.: 30 70.5 67.3 48.4
Absolute figs
- Boys 154 173 155
- Girls 75 82 55
- Total 229 257 210
Possible Reasons
The following could be some of the reasons for the poor performance.
- Increasing work load of the girl child
- Quality of teaching staff
- Poor supervision
- Inadequate Teaching and Learning Materials
Poor performance of the Girl Child. May be at the JSS level, the girl child begins performing the multiple domestic roles such as fetching water, cooking, washing, sweeping and cleaning just to mention a few .These activities limit time for academic work.
Actions to address the situation include;
Provision of means of transport (Bicycles) for the girl child through UNICEF support. These could be used to fetch water and quickly get to school and get back home early to perform domestic roles. Teaching Staff Strength Pupil-Teacher ratio at JSS Level
Whilst the pupil-teacher ratio is below the national ratio at the Primary level, it appears very high at the JSS level.
Pupil-Teacher ratio at JSS Level
Pupil-Teacher ratio 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06
56:1 60:1 67:1
- The ratio is higher than the national ratio of 36:1.
- For the three years it has been between 56-67 pupils to a teacher.
That is about 46% higher than the national ratio
Absolute Figures 02/03 03/04 04/05 05/06
Trained Teachers 60 59 104 130
Untrained Teachers 23 29 24 18
1.On quality, PTR is not encouraging at this level (1:56, 1:60 and l:67) as compared to the National PTR of l:25
- Percentage of trained teachers is quite encouraging as compared to the primary (78% in 2003/04 and 69.0% in 2005/06
- During the period of the review, it was realized that, l out of the 15 JSS in 2005/06 has a workshop and out of the 53 classrooms as many as 42 representing 79.2% need repairs
- Also only 5 out of 15 schools representing 33.3% has Toilet facilities in 2005/06 Apart from teacher sponsorship, there are other interventions in education aimed at creating an enabling environment for quality education delivery. These are:
- Construction of school blocks,
- Provision of furniture,
- Teacher accommodation
- An office block for the District Directorate of Education
- A school feeding programme attracts and retains pupils in school
- Best Teacher’s Award
Receipts & Expenditure on Education
- Inflows of resources to education sector were encouraging during the period under review.
- Inflows ranged from below 6 billion to 8 billion and expenditure from below 7 billion to 08 billion. The above analysis portray that the education sector seems to have suffered a slump in 2004 for all the indicators: Enrollment, Teacher population, Transition rates and even finances.
Some actions earmarked for 2006-2009
- Continuation of educational infrastructure provision
- Sponsorship of teacher trainees
- Promotion of both formal education and functional literacy with much emphasis on female education.
- Incentive packages to attract and retain teachers
- A critical attention on quality of teachers at the Primary level