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.

–

By: Joseph Akon Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Basic school heads critical to education reform – C/R Minister appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The suggestion is aimed at getting educational policymakers and implementers to have greater control in regulating how pupils spend their time after school in order to ensure that they study a lot more and improve their academic performances.

[contextly_sidebar id=”69WlVnxaLZAjFsAwdfY6OHfHsONXik6I”]The suggestion was made by the Central Region’s immediate past president of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Bright Bedzrah, at a forum held by the Regional Minister at Cape Coast on Monday.

In his interview with journalists at the forum, Mr Bedzrah lamented: “These are the pupils supposed to sit down at night and learn, but you see them moving about town, sometimes twelve midnight, the whole night. There should be an LI preventing these children from roaming about in town at special times; it is possible.”

He argued that the issue has been one of the ‘ignored realities’ which factor into the low academic performance at the basic school level in the country.

Though the institution of regulations to monitor the movement of basic school children has been initiated by some districts and traditional authorities in some parts of the country, the former NAGRAT Regional President posits a nationalistic approach to the issue in terms of an LI is the way to go.

He also warned against any intention on the part of the government to introduce performance contracts for heads of schools and teachers without adequate input from teacher unions in the country.

“You are talking about contracts – it means you are talking about the rights of somebody, a decision between two or three people; we want this thing to be done properly, so open it for broader consultation,” Mr Bedzrah said.

He also called for the extension of the teacher motivation allowance at the Senior High School level to basic school teachers, arguing that “once there is something called teacher motivation, it must start from the basic level so that the basic teacher who equally has the same qualification and/or above those teaching at the secondary school should be given the same teacher motivation.”

The ex-NAGRAT boss stated that a critical look at issues concerning the capitation grant and resource provision at the basic school was needed as an indication of the government’s commitment to sanitizing the public basic school level.

–

By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Pass law to regulate movement of pupils at night – C/R NAGRAT appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

As government implements the Free Senior High School policy, some have raised concern about the neglect of basic education, which is also supposed to be free.

[contextly_sidebar id=”1e4V3DOGW5PfOeiJG1g6gTzQbSHJ96If”]Citi News’ checks at some public Junior High Schools have shown that parents were being charged for admission, tuition, among other items before their wards are admitted.

The development, which is contrary to provisions for the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) program generated worry and public debate.

Speaking to Citi News, Mrs. Ayisi acknowledged that these problems existed and explained that onus lay schools to make the issues know to their direct supervisors of education.

“…In your districts, you have a District Director. If it’s a metro, you have the metro supervisor in charge of education. We have circuit supervisors. We have the offices there. If I am a headteacher and I have a problem, I need to channel my grievances to all these people.”

These supervisors are then expected to forward the grievances to the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, the Minister added.

However, she said schools were not making good use of these reporting chains and the government was not going to tolerate these shortcomings any longer.

“…But I have realised that some of these things that we hear about all the time, it doesn’t go through that [process]. Some may also go through that, get to a point but they don’t get to the next stage… When you have a problem, don’t just sit down and assume that a minister somewhere will know that you have a problem.”

–

By: Farida Shaibu/Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Make use of district, metro supervisors – Minister to head-teachers appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.