The Metropolitan Chief Executive of Cape Coast, Anthony Egyir Aikins, has threatened to close down schools in the metropolis if they do not respect the quota system demanded by people of the area. Mr Aikins has therefore given the Ghana Education Service up to 2011 to rectify the persisting anomaly, or else he will carry out his threat. “2009 we started talking to some of the powers that we believe that the situation should change and I think most of them gave us the assurance that things would change, but 2010 it is the same thing, so what I am saying is that we are giving them up to 2011 [to do the right thing or the schools will be closed down].” In an interview with host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Kojo Oppon-Nkrumah, Mr Aikins assured that “a time in 2011 we will start to do what we believe will let people understand us.” He emphasized that when the schools are closed down, students and teachers would be given “48 hours to leave Cape Coast”. Asked if it lies within his right to carry out such a decision, Mr Aikins opined that judging from the numerous complaints he received from disgruntled parents, and as the chairman of the Metropolitan Security Council, that option would be a necessary evil to avoid any possible “unrest” in his area. Sounding frustrated, Mr Aikins said his demand was more or less like putting the icing on similar sentiments expressed by other prominent indigenes like the Paramount chief of Cape Coast, the Member of Parliament for the area and the Regional Minister. Interestingly, the Mayor conceded that there has not been any scientific survey to prove his claims that less students from the area are gaining admission into the schools there. He noted that the media and parents have been his main source of information. The mayor first issued the warning on Wednesday when he and the Central Regional Minister Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe inspected some school projects in the metropolis. “We are not going to sit down to see some of these things happening in Cape Coast. [We have] to go to the extent of even closing down some of the schools until the quota that we need is [given].” “As for next year we are not going to joke at all,” he reiterated. But Mr Paul Krampa, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, has assured that his outfit would convene stakeholders meeting, possibly in December, to thrash out such concerns, which he said cut across all regions. He however explained that the 30% quota system was abolished six years ago with the advent of the Computerised School Selection and Placement System. He said the idea was reviewed last year but in a consensus it was agreed that the system should not be re-introduced. However, Mr Krampa said with the numerous concerns raised by stakeholders, the ministry will “look critically” at the quota system. Joy FM’s Central Regional correspondent Richard Kwadwo Nyarko who was with the Mayor and the Central Regional Minister who went round the schools in the metropolis on Wednesday, said for instance, the Wesley Girls Senior High School admitted only four students from two basic schools in Cape Coast. The headmistress of the school Betty Jokoto has reportedly said about 80% of the students admitted for the 2010/11 academic year came from the Greater Accra and Ashanti Regions. The Regional Minister, Madam Ama Benyiwa Doe, therefore described the condition as appalling and wondered why the quota system was not used for indigenes who gave their lands for the schools. “I don’t think this kind of thing is fair, what do they get from the land they provided for the schools? There are children who have made five, six, seven in cape coast and they [well endowed schools] think they should go to less endowed schools then I think we are not being fair to the people of cape coast in particular.” Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana