The Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, has made a strong argument that heads of basic schools hold the keys to the success or otherwise of any policy meant to give a facelift to the nation’s public educational sector.
He argued that Ghana’s quest to see positive changes in education will have a weak footing if the basic level, which is the foundation, is not given the needed attention in terms of roles played by basic school heads and teachers.
He made the observations at a forum he organized on Monday to interact with all heads of basic schools in the Central Region at the Regional Coordinating Council in Cape Coast, attended by all district educational directors and the twenty Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region.
The meeting was in fulfillment of the Minister’s promise in late December 2017 to meet all stakeholders in public basic education to discuss the perennially low academic performances in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in the Central Region.
It was also to strategize in order to ensure that children from the Region improve their performances and gain admission to the top Senior High Schools in the Region, a situation the Regional Minister lamented over last year.
“If you take the entire educational chain, the head of the basic school is the most critical link; if the kids have already been formed well at the basic school, chances are that they will do well at the secondary level, so the real thing is the basic school,” he noted
“In my view, the person who is in charge to ensure that the child is well formed, the child is well prepared to be pushed on to the senior level and then to the university, that person is critical”, he added.
The Regional Minister, who was himself a teacher from 1994 to January 2017, has vowed to use his tenure to revamp education in the Central Region – especially to improve performance among children from the Central Region at the basic level to ensure a positive progression to the higher levels.
Kwamena Duncan has thus warned the performance of heads of public basic schools in the Region will be vigorously monitored to bring about better results.
Many teachers at the forum expressed their appreciation for the programme, indicating, “the Minister has shown very positive signs of tackling basic education issues”, and promised their full support to the campaign.
An award was given to the head and teachers of the Efutu M.A. Basic School located in the Cape Coast Metropolis for their school placing first nationally in last year’s BECE.
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By: Joseph Akon Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana