Upper East Regional Minister, on Thursday opened a three-day Regional Education Sector Annual Review conference in Bolgatanga.

Participants drawn from the region's eight districts, comprized retired educationists, UNICEF Officials, non-governmental organisation officials, officials from the Ghana Education Service among others.

Mr. Gambila said the conference was timely as it would serve as a forum for stakeholders in education to assess the overall educational situation in the region, consolidate achievements so far made and identify challenges encountered, with the view to ensuring the effective implementation of the new education reforms.

He said the New Education Reforms called for decentralised planning and management of education, which gives more responsibility and authority to educational officials in the regions and districts to take decisions towards the promotion of education.

Mr. Gambila charged the participants to identify major issues affecting the development of education and propose pragmatic strategies towards the promotion of education in the region.

He also urged participants to investigate the poor performance of candidates of the 2004/2005 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) and inadequate supply of trained teachers in the region.

Source: GNA