This follows a directive by the Ghana Education Service (GES), to heads of public Senior High Schools to charge final year students only half of the third term fees for the 2017/2018 academic year.

The General Secretary of CHASS, Reverend Abraham Osei Donkor, said: although bills have been given out to students, heads of schools would comply with the new directive and refund the excess fees to students.

“The directive is unambiguous. I don’t think it will create any problem. They are starting the exams on the 3rd of April. For most schools, especially the boarding house, the students are in residence. The Director-General said in the event students will stay in the school, we have to calculate the number of weeks they will stay and add it to it. That is what all the heads will do. They’ll work it out; where we need to refund, we will refund to the parents.”

The Ghana Education Service [GES] last Thursday said the directive was because the students, who will be sitting for the 2018 WASSCE examinations will spend only seven weeks in school instead of the full 14 weeks.

The Director-General of the GES, Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said: “It is expected that the Regional Directors should ensure strict compliance with this directive.”

The memo indicated that adjustments would be made if students are prepared to stay through the Easter vacation.

“In the instance where the final year students will be asked to stay in school during the current holidays or will re-open on 16th April 2018, the fees should be adjusted to reflect the number of weeks they will be spending in school,” it said.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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She said access to education plays a crucial role in women empowerment, and has therefore bemoaned the alarming figures of girls of school going age who are out of school, which could adversely impact on their future as adults.

[contextly_sidebar id=”KCEIGFgLQzq7S77IBemEIdbtuLuYs3uv”]“While we fight for greater rights and equality for women in all spheres of life, let us not forget that educating the girl child remains the bedrock of women empowerment. Every woman was once a girl, so an empowered girl makes for an empowered woman,” Mrs. Bawumia stated at the Global Women’s Empowerment event held in Philadelphia, US on Saturday, March 10, 2018.

“The progress made in individual nations is commendable but the global picture leaves much to be desired. According to UNICEF, there are more than 1.1 billion girls in the world today. This is a significant number whose fate should not be left to chance. Without a deliberate effort and policy to help shape their future, the prospects for some of these girls are bleak,” she warned.

There are still 31 million girls of primary school age out of school. Of these, 17 million are expected never to enter school, according to UNESCO. Also, UNESCO estimates that there are 34 million female adolescents out of school while almost a quarter of young women aged 15-24 today numbering 116 million in developing countries have never completed primary school and so lack skills for work; and two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are said to be females.

“Let us not take these numbers just as abstract figures. Unfortunately, these figures represent girls and women who bear the brunt of society’s difficulties because they lack the basic skills and the springboard which education provides for their economic and social take offs,” Mrs. Bawumia stated.

She stressed on the need to prioritise girl child education now since that will have a ripple effect on national development.

She said: “Lack of education has a debilitating effect on women empowerment, maternal health, job opportunities, and exposes girls to gender based violence and forced marriages. To illustrate, UNICEF estimates that ‘if all women had secondary education, there would be 49 per cent fewer child deaths. Again, according to UNICEF; if all women had secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, child marriage would drop by 64 per cent.

“One of the greatest educationists in the history of Ghana, James Kwegyir Aggrey once said that ‘if you educate a boy, you educate an individual but if you educate a girl, you educate a nation’. Nearly a century after his death, all evidence still points to the fact that prioritizing girl child education, especially in the developing world, does not only empower the girl but it serves as a catalyst for the development of the entire nation.”

Mrs. Bawumia has therefore touted the Free Senior High School Education programme being spearheaded by the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia administration, believing it will help break the shackles impeding the progress of women.

“For these reasons, it is imperative that as we champion the cause of women, we should endeavor to shape national policy such as access to education. This is because if the frontiers are opened, girls and women stand to benefit more.

“In many countries, education opportunities exist but because of poverty, girls are often sacrificed. Countries such as Ghana are making some progress in this regard. I am happy to say that the government of Ghana last year made education at the secondary level absolutely free for all children of school going age. This means the government pays for tuition, books, feeding, uniforms and boarding fees.

“Initiatives such as these are not gender biased but from the statistics, it is clear however, that girls would benefit immensely and the standard of living of women will be greatly enhanced in the long run,” the Second Lady told her global audience.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Out of the 30 awardees, four are students with special needs; two visually impaired and two with hearing impairment.

Each student took home a citation, certificate, plaque, a gold medal, a Samsung tablet, one-year supply of Nestle products, a book supply from EPP Bookshop and GHȼ1,000.00 cash.

Speaking at a colourful ceremony in Accra to present the awards, President Akufo-Addo said education was key to development and democratic growth of every country, hence the rollout of the free Senior High School (SHS) programme, as well as other initiatives to ensure that all children of school going age have access to education.

“When children fall through cracks it holds back the growth and development of the country as well as the fight against the nation’s quest to reduce illiteracy rate,” he added.

President Akufo-Addo reiterated that government had rolled out a roadmap for the implementation of a five-year strategic plan for the country’s Technical and Vocational Education and Training.

The move, he explained, would transform the country’s labour force to create employment and enhance productivity.

While urging the awardees to learn hard, the President praised the parents for their support and encouraged them to continue supporting the children by providing them with the necessary resources to be able to complete their education.

Dr Mathew Opoku-Prempeh, Minister of Education said every child had a right to education and that, no child should lack education due to poverty.

He said in years past, as many as 11,000 students could not get access to public SHS but as government implemented the free education programme, some 90,000 children have had access to SHS.

The Minister of Education announced that plans were far advanced to timely deliver teaching and learning materials to schools to facilitate teaching and learning.

Mrs Freda Duplan, Managing Director of Nestle Ghana, said the company has for the past 25 years been the lead sponsor of the Awards, keeping a tradition of a strong commitment to education delivery and sports at the basic level in Ghana.

She noted that the company was implementing a WASH project to promote safe water and sanitation across communities in Ghana.

Mrs Duplan said the company would soon introduce Nestle Healthy kids to promote healthy lifestyle among school children.

The Presidential award was instituted in 1993, to award scholarship to deserving BECE graduates.

Originally, 10 students from each of the 10 regions were awarded until 2001, upon a suggestion from the Ghana Education Service; the number was increased to 20 to give it a gender perspective for a boy and a girl each from the 10 regions.

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Source: GNA

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She has also called on teachers to be effective role models to students and guide them to become successful future leaders.

The Second Lady was speaking at the 68th Speech and Prize-giving day of the T.I. Ahmadiyya Senior High School (SHS) in Kumasi where she represented the Vice President.

She said the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government believes in a teacher-first approach to education and has begun introducing reforms such as teacher training, skills upgrade and improving teaching and learning materials to enable them deliver quality education outcomes for students.

“Government is confident that you will support its initiatives aimed at improving the quality of our education including the Free SHS policy. Be diligent in your dealings with the students and encourage them to take their studies seriously. Be effective role models for them, because at their impressionable ages how you conduct yourselves, will have a huge impact on their lives. Guide them to understand that they are the future leaders Ghana needs”.

Mrs. Bawumia said Government was aware of the challenges confronting the implementation of the Free SHS policy and is currently working to address them.

She added that government was also determined to ensure that the implementation of the policy does not compromise quality education and will work hard to resolve the challenges.

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By: Hafiz Tijani/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The event, supported by Zepto Ghana Ltd, Point of View and Africa Schools Online, brought together Heads of Institutions, Directors of IT, Teachers and actors in the education sector to appreciate how Microsoft’s latest technologies and education tools can help institutions save money, attract students, and aid teaching and learning globally.

Speaking on the sidelines of the event, an education director of Microsoft in the Middle East, Jaye Richard Mills, said it was vital that educational institutions employ ‘real-world’ teaching and learning methods in order for the youth to better translate what they study into their daily lives.

“I think the challenge as students is that you come into university or college expecting it to be reflective of the life that you live outside, and what you very often find [that isn’t the case]. We need to make better connections between education and real life outside,” she said.

“So I think the purpose of today is to talk about windows and Microsoft in education, and what Microsoft is doing around the world to encourage the grown of the skills driven agenda in our schools and universities.”

According to her, the world had shifted from knowledge acquisition to a greater focus on skills and capacity development.

“[There’s] a fundamental shift from pure knowledge and acquisition to very much skill for 21st-century life. The skill that you need to take your place in the 21st-century information age, are the types of skills that you need to acquire during education.”

The event saw the unveiling of some new software like Microsoft 365 Education, which combines the essentials of the Windows 10 platform all within a simplified licensing framework for better and easy learning, Office 365 for productivity and collaboration and Enterprise Mobility Suite for security and management.

Jaye Richard Mills also said the programs are meant to better education and equip the young to be able to face and adapt to the technological age, which is at the heart of Microsoft.

“Microsoft is about supporting educators, and supporting them on a journey to improving their skills, and we do that through the various programs that we have for training which you will find on our Microsoft.com/education site, and also in the teams that we have working around the world to develop our software.

“So for Microsoft this is very much about supporting educators to deliver quality education that speaks for purposes in this 21 century information age,” she added.

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By: Ann-Shirley Ziwu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The programme, in its third year, is one of the initiatives that the Lebanese community is running to help promote education in Ghana.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Lebanese ambassador to Ghana, Ali H. Halabi, acknowledged the contribution of Ghanaian soldiers in peacekeeping efforts across the world.

“…for the Lebanese community, the contributions of Ghana’s Armed Forces to domestic and world security is an emotional affair. We fondly recall the efforts of Ghana’s peacekeeping mission to Lebanon and the sacrifices made there. They are the symbols of the decades of strong and enduring bonds between the peoples of Ghana and Lebanon. Today, we acknowledge that, it is the selfless contributions of these men and women of the Armed Forces that have established a solid security architecture under which different people in this great nation could live together peacefully…,” he stated.

“…By this action, we hope to contribute to the future of these children who are spread across all the levels of Ghana’s education system.”

This is the third year that the Lebanese community in Ghana has awarded scholarships to the dependents of matyrs.

Since the 2012/2013 academic year, the Lebanese community has been giving scholarships to these wards, along with some brilliant undergraduate students from the Ghana Institute of Journalism, law students from the University of Ghana and the Kwame University of Science and Technology, as well as some students of the Ghana School of Law (Makola) and Masters students of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.

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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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There have been reports of various challenges facing the programme, including reports of infrastructural and feeding problems, inadequate desks forcing some students to sit on bare floor and in some cases cement blocks, due to the high number of nearly 400,000 students that enrolled for the launch in September.

Students of Parkoso SHS study on bare floor

Citi News recently reported about a situation at the Parkoso Community Day Senior High School in the Asokore Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region, where some students sit on the bare floor for lack of desks.

[contextly_sidebar id=”xGkNea1IHVlwUqt9jgB8CoyPH4H0CEjx”]The Minority in Parliament has on several occasions criticized government for failing to address challenges threatening the programme.

One of those criticisms recently came from former Deputy Minister of Education, Okudzeto Ablakwa, who accused government of allocating very little amount for the Free SHS programme in the 2018 budget.

Reacting to Mr. Ablakwa’s statement, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, a current Deputy Education Minister, said:  “I’ll rather have children learning under trees than walking on the streets and selling dog chains. I’ll rather have children eating under trees than going hungry”.

Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue, the Gomoa West MP sided with Dr. Adutwum’s position, saying “I will re –echo the sentiments of the Deputy Minister that he will prefer people sitting on the bare floor and listening to wisdom, getting education so that their minds will be broadened and from there they can get to whatever heights they want to.”

Mr. Abban indicated that, it will be needless highlighting challenges facing the free SHS programme since in his view, it will amount to nothing if these challenges are resolved and teachers still refuse to play their respective roles.

“Of course, when you are sitting in a comfortable place it helps, but I can assure you that if we even bring all the good stuff and the teachers are not delivering what have you achieved?”

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government’s flagship free Senior High School programme was launched in September 2017, as part of measures to ensure all Ghanaian children are educated, at least, up to the SHS level.

However, since its introduction, the programme that admitted a huge number of about 400,000 students, has encountered a number of challenges.

You can’t run education with voluntary funds’

The government announced in the 2018 budget, that it would set up a fund to receive voluntary contributions from individuals to support the implementation of the free SHS programme and the educational sector as a whole.

However, this plan has come under fire from the Minority who believe this is an indication that government does not have the funds to properly implement its much-touted programme.

And according to Okudzeto Ablakwa, the government cannot afford to rely on the voluntary funds as a source of funding for free SHS, as projections for those funds may not materialize.

“No country runs public education on just voluntary funds. What if the Fund is not considered attractive and you don’t really get as much as you are expecting. We can’t leave the destiny of our children’s quality education to just a voluntary fund where we don’t really know the projections. Meanwhile there’s an 800 million-cedi gap as we speak. You’ve only allocated 1.2 billion but you need two billion cedis, at least to sustain free SHS for the 2018 fiscal year,” he argued.

“You cannot just depend on voluntary funds, you can’t run education that way. You need a concrete plan and you need a well-defined funding source. It’s clear that government is struggling to fund it and struggling to identify a clear funding source.”

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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According to a Senior Research Scientist at the Ghana Space Science Technology Institute of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Dr. Nana Ama Brown Klutse, taking cognizance of the biological makeup of women at the planning stages of educational activities will encourage more women to take up careers in science and technology.

[contextly_sidebar id=”igYo93X8CWEsZ8objSstyCoQOsiNoDvH”]Dr. Nana Ama Brown Klutse was speaking at a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics workshop for Junior High School girls in Tarkwa in the Tarkwa-Nsueam Municipality in the Western Region, organized by Turning Point Advocacy, a non-governmental organization that focuses on child literacy, STEM education for girls, and women economic empowerment.

Dr. Klutse listed a number of challenges that confronts women to take up careers in science and technology.

She said, “the problem starts from the basic level where there is stereotyping in our schools, homes, in our communities. That aside, the biological makeup of women also distracts their academic work and their careers. We have the women supposed to be home kind of mentality among us especially when they are married, and are supposed to be taking care of the children, the home, the husband and all that. Combining that with career is not easy” she said.

She continued that “we have seen examples even in politics that there are more men in there than women. It’s not easy for a woman to be moving from town to town, city to city, village to village to campaign whilst leaving the children and husband at home and all that behind, it’s not an easy thing to do”.

To address these challenges, Dr. Nana Ama believes Ghana’s educational system must be developed with the biological makeup and contributions of women in mind.

She believes “planning examinations, planning quizzes, time to go to school and all that should be tailored towards the biological makeup of women. If during just one week examination or BECE, a girl or woman is having menstrual pain, it can be so painful that the child cannot write a paper or two. That can affect her future maybe for a lifetime” she lamented.

She concluded that “moving forward our job places should allow convenient time for women to go to work. It shouldn’t be strictly 8:30am to 4:30pm because the men are going to work at this time. Women should be given flexible time to work. It can still be the 8 hours but probably I can only go at 10:00am and close at 5:00pm or something”.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The previous NPP government, led by former President John Agyekum Kufour, reinforced free basic education through the disbursement of capitation grants, with an initial amount of GHC 3.00 per pupil per academic year.

[contextly_sidebar id=”Y2HA930jgCMENHNIAkTimHhvj4fixmKa”]The amount was slightly increased to GHC 4.50 by the NDC government in 2009.

In light of what the current government called high cost of living in its maiden budget in March 2017, government  increased the capitation grant by 100 percent from GHC 4.50 per capita to GHC 9.00, and now the latest increase of Ghc10.00.

Gov’t absorbs 70 percent of 2017 BECE registration fees

Presenting the 2018 Budget before lawmakers on Wednesday, November 15, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, also indicated that, government had absorbed 70 percent of the 2017 BECE registration fees as subsidies for all registered candidates in public Junior High Schools.

“In 2018, government will absorb 100 percent BECE registration fees for registered candidates from only public Junior High Schools.”

BSTEM programme

In a bid to strengthen the foundational skills and generate interest in mathematics, science and technology, government intends introducing the Basic Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (BSTEM) programme in all basic schools.

The programme will involve the delivery of BSTEM, and the establishment of 10 Regional BSTEM centers.

Free SHS programme 

Giving updates on the free SHS programme, the Minister revealed that, government had so far absorbed “all fees” approved by GES Council for 353,053 first year students.

“This is made up of 113, 622 Day students, and 239, 431 Boarding students. As part of the implementation of the programme, boarding students are being given three square meals, whilst day students enjoy one hot meal each day.

In addition, government supplied the full complement of core textbooks, supplementary readers and core English Literature books to all first year students.

Government also released subsidy for continuing in Senior High Schools, the Finance Minister stated.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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