Ghana’s education sector is challenged but not failing. This is according to the Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Stephen Adu.
The sector has been in the news recently due to the poor performance of students at this year’s West African Secondary School Certificate Exams (WASSCE).
Various reasons have been attributed to the mass failure including, overcrowded curriculum, lack of resources, lack of commitment from teachers, increasing use of social media by students which affects their writing, among others.
The alarming rate of failure of students has again triggered the debate over the quality or otherwise of education students receive.
A recent survey also revealed that majority of pupils in basic schools can neither read nor understand English or any Ghanaian Language properly.
This was published in the National Education Assessment (NEA) report. The survey was carried out by the Assessment Services Unit (ASU) of the Ghana Education Service (GES) with support from the Research Triangle International (RTI). The project was funded by the USAID.
The Education Minister, Professor Naana Opoku Agyeman believes that Ghana has one of the best educational system despite major challenges facing the sector.
In an attempt to solve some of the challenges, the Education Minister has also directed all basic schools to desist from using the English language as the sole medium of instruction in the classrooms.
But Mr. Adu explained that the challenges have existed for a while but heightened public awareness, commentary and interest in Ghana’s education system has created such a negative impression in the minds of people.
This, he said has given in to the seeming assertion that the system is failing.
“People are becoming more and more interested in education and that it why it seems like we are failing,” he claimed.
According to him, one of the major challenges has to do with the “learning component.”
He said a lot of concentration was given to access to education in the past but currently the government together with the GES is now focused on improving the quality of teaching and learning.
“We have identified quality as an issue and this is where we want to tackle and spend most of our time on,” he said.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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