Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in Charge of Tertiary Education, said this at a durbar of the chiefs and people of Agona Duakwa held to climax their annual Akwambo festival.

The Minister said each region would get two of the 20 technical schools with modern equipment, adding that the establishment of the technical institutions would commence before the end of 2017.

Prof Yankah said one of the technical schools would be established at Agona Duakwa in the Agona East District of the Central Region.

The Minister said it would offer training to students in carpentry, masonry, electricals, Information and Communication Technology among others.

Prof Yankah said it is the duty of all stakeholders to help provide useful skills training to the youth to help halt migration to towns and cities.

He said plans have been completed for the rehabilitation of the first free national boys’ school established by Nana Kojo Amoakwa, chief of Agona Duakwa, which has been converted into a Junior High School (JHS).

The Minister said after the completion, the ADA JHS would be named after the first Duakwa chief, a great visionary, who died in the 1960s.

Mr. Dennis Armah-Frempong, Agona East District Chief Executive, said the Assembly has made a budgetary allocation in the 2018 composite budget to construct and rehabilitate dilapidated basic school structures.

He said the Assembly has selected cocoa and palm oil for the One District One Factory programme, and urged farmers in the area to invest in these cash crops.

The DCE said thousands of bags of fertilizers and varieties of maize seeds, have been supplied to the farmers at subsidized prices under the Planting Food for and Jobs policy.

He called on the farmers to invest in Planting for Investment initiative, which is the additional programme to the One District One Factory policy.

–

Source: GNA

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His warning follows concerns from school heads in the Upper West Region over the lack of infrastructure and other logistics to effectively run the government’s flagship education program.

Speaking to the headmasters of some selected Senior High Schools at the Nandom SHS on Thursday, he said, “you have to go by the rules and guidelines that you have been given. If there is any problem please let us know. If you take the law into your own hands, we shall deal with you because no one will be allowed to obstruct the achievements of this goal. If you are going to be an obstacle, we shall remove you”.

Ambrose Dery was on a two-day monitoring exercise of the roll-out of the Free SHS program in the region.

Mr. Dery, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Nandom constituency, said that “the success of the free SHS programme is necessary for our development and government will not joke with it.”

He assured critics that the government will do all it takes to ensure the success of the program.

“The programme is not going to be a flash in the pan, we will continue to monitor to make sure that what is happening is the right thing,” he said.

The headmaster of Nandom SHS, Rev. Bro. Joachim Naa, lamented that the school is grappling with series of challenges that are hampering on teaching and learning.

He said “we cant feed our students. The buffer stock company is supposed to give us bulk foodstuffs but as I speak, we have not received anything yet.”

He appealed to the government to urgently provide the school with the needed infrastructure to meet their growing population.

“We are compelled to accommodate the first year students in an uncompleted building because the school was built to accommodate 450 students but currently has over 900 students.”

Rev. Bro. Naa was worried that “there is a struggle in the dining hall and we can’t use the assembly hall and students are compelled to assemble in the open.”

He appealed to the government to release funds for the completion of some abandoned building projects in the school.

Ambrose Dery visited Wa SHS, Lawra SHS and the Nandom SHS where he interacted with staff and students and some headmasters drawn from other districts in the region.

–

By:Mahama Latif/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Association believes that the Service must consider the challenges being experienced on its website by the students to provide ample time to enable every qualified student to select their preferred school.

The Vice President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News that the challenges being experienced with this year’s placement process was not surprising but GES must allow students ample time to access their placement information online.

“I am not too comfortable with the 48-hour deadline that was given. Let us extend the time. Let us recognize that we are dealing with a human situation of preference and choice,” he said.

Barely 24 hours after the Ghana Education Service (GES) announced that it had released the placements for students who took the 2017 BECE, the website set up for parents and their wards to check their Senior High School (SHS) admissions list suffered technical hitches.

Persons seeking to access the website were greeted with error notices or secured access after several attempts.

According to some prospective SHS students, the situation has created a lot of inconvenience for them as they have to make regular visits to internet cafes to try to access their placements online.

Others who have not been placed yet are also frustrated they have to beat a 48-hour deadline given by the GES to make their preferred choice of school from options provided on the website.

Mr. Carbonu says the despite the challenges being experienced, he is optimistic the academic calendar will not be negatively affected.

Free SHS

Mr. Carbonu said the various schools were ready to receive students as the Free SHS program is rolled out, but he cautioned government to establish terms of payment with the various schools to avoid challenges during the academic term.

He advised that government to pay all Senior High Schools monies to cover the education of all the students before the start of the academic year.

“Let us not wait till the reopening. Let us make sure that we have an agreed timeline, either a month or two weeks before school reopens, money should be released to the schools. We the teachers know what our job is… As far as teaching and learning materials are available, we are ready to teach.”

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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As they say and which I also share, the task of providing quality education, including girls’ education, is about active collaboration, partnership and participation from all of us.

If education really is a right and we think “All” should benefit from it, as contained in our nation’s educational plans, including the Education Strategic Plan (2010-2020) or so, and which several international conventions on education, such as the Sustainable Development Goals also profess then there is a clarion need for all and sundry to get involved.

Education practitioners and managers should continue to open their doors wide but well secured to allow for true stakeholders, including organisations, corporate bodies and philanthropists to collaborate and participate in providing good quality education to all citizens.

It is true that the Ghana Education Service (GES) is the agency responsible for managing pre-tertiary education in Ghana. And it is true that with the complex nature of its task of ensuring that education activities happen well across the board, the GES has to be supported.

Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa is the new acting Director-General of the GES. This write-up congratulates him and assures readers of a detailed introduction of the learned man in a special edition which shall come soon. Though has been in office for less than a month, Prof Opoku-Amankwa has been all over the place consulting and deliberating with organisations, unions, bodies and with almost everybody just to chart an improved path for our nation’s education.

I should say that all heads of schools, supervisors, officers and education directors know and do appreciate that they cannot and will not pretend to be doing it all alone. Appeals for an effective stakeholder support in education service delivery are being made to all of us regularly and this piece of writing also thinks that the responses, so far, are commendable.

I was privileged to have participated and served as a rapporteur in a two-day Annual Girls’ Education Review Meeting, which happened recently at Koforidua and which some 55 girls’ education officers and officials of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also attended.

The two-day meeting was under the aegis of the Girls’ Education Unit (GEU) of the Basic Education Division of GES with major sponsorship from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED). This write-up begs to share with readers and members of the general public bits and pieces of what transpired at that meeting.

Mandate of GEU

The GEU, headed by Mrs. Catherine Nutsugah-Mikado, has its functions as follows:

Coordinating with all relevant institutions, Donor Partners (DPs), NGOs, CBOs and government departments and agencies to advance policy and planning of girls’ education;

Establishing a database on girls’ education in order to strengthen the capacity of the GES at the school-community, district, regional and national levels;

Research on issues relating to girls’ education and to disseminate the findings to policy makers, district assemblies and to all relevant stakeholders;

Acting as a pressure group within the Ministry of Education (MoE) to advocate for strategies that advance the implementation of policies related to enhancing girls’ education;

Advocating for bye-laws to boost girls’ enrollment and retention in specific localities;

Collaborating with the Divisions and Units in the GES on gender-related issues;

Liaising with CRDD and textbook writers to correct gender stereotyping in specific subjects and textbooks to ensure gender balance of illustrations and examples;

Examine and develop national and regional strategies for improving enrollment, retention, transition, completion and achievement of girls at the pre-tertiary level;

Advocate for the rights of girls’ education;

Initiate, implement and recommend new interventions for bridging the gender gap;

Collaborate with partners to implement projects related to girls’ education.

The Annual Girls’ Education Review Meeting

The meeting saw the launch of a network of organisations dubbed, “Girls’ Education Network (GEN)”, which shall work with the GEU to promote girls’ education in Ghana.

The GEN, with the support of the Girls’ Education Advisory Body, shall support the GEU in the implementation of its activities and functions.

The GEN, made up of officials of government agencies, civil society organisations, donor partners, educational and research institutions and girls’ education practitioners, is premised on the fact that education, including girls’ education, is fundamental to the promotion of the human rights of the child and it is the key to breaking the cycle of poverty in Ghana.

The Network hopes to create the platform for systematic coordination and monitoring of all efforts geared towards the promotion of girls’ education and for ensuring that all of those efforts are in consonance with the National Vision for Girls’ Education in Ghana.

Welcome Address

Eastern Regional Director of GES Margaret Mensah gave the welcome address, where she lauded the GEU for its initiative of having to assemble key stakeholders towards girls’ education.

She said the initiative should not only be seen as a platform for bringing together organisations but also as an avenue to have the activities of member organisations effectively coordinated and monitored.

Purpose of Meeting

Mrs. Catherine Nutsugah-Mikado informed that the GEU has started registering genuine organisations and institutions which are working on promoting girls’ education in the country. She expressed her displeasure at the way and manner some organisations perform their activities without recourse to the GEU and the GES.

“As we speak, the GEU has recorded 300 organisations which are into girls’ education. The situation where some organisations claim to have been supporting girls’ education without the knowledge of the GEU must stop and I hope that our presence here will help us to know the way out of this situation”, she said.

She praised development partners and girls’ education officers for their hard work and accentuated, “I am happy we are here to share our stories together and to learn from the stories for better performance. But for our girls’ education officers and our partners, we wouldn’t have come to this far in girls’ education as a Unit and as a nation.”

Remarks from Development Partners

An official of UNICEF, Madeez Adamu-Issah, on behalf of the partners, urged all organisations in girls’ education to have their names documented with the GEU and the GES so as to promote effective coordination and monitoring of their activities.

Mr. Adamu-Issah urged the GES to see the organisations working with them as active partners in education other than being looked at as mere sponsors of meetings, workshops and programmes.

Remarks by Acting Deputy Director-General of GES

The Director of Basic Education and acting Director-General of GES, Mrs. Cynthia Bosumtwi-Sam, who was the Guest of Honour, expressed gratitude to the participants for their role at supporting girls’ education and urged them to continue to work hard.

Mrs. Bosumtwi-Sam also affirmed the need for organisations into girls’ education to get registered to allow for effective monitoring and evaluation of their activities in the country.

She charged the participants to propose practical policies and programmes on girls’ education as they strengthen their network with education authorities as to how their policy proposals could be adopted and implemented.

She then launched the GEN and tasked the members to follow due processes and procedures in all of their consultations and deliberations with the GES/GEU and other stakeholders.

Composition of GEN and Girls’ Education Advisory Body

The GEN, with an advisory capacity, has a total of 13 members from each of the following organisations and institutions:

Policy, Budget, Monitoring and Evaluation (PBME) Division of MoE

Basic Education Division of GES

Secondary Education Division of GES

Girls’ Education Division of GES

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)

Development Partners (DFID, USAID, JICA, KOICA, etc)

Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED)

National Development Planning Commission (NDPC)

Department of Social Welfare

Ghana Health Service

Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC)

Representative from NGOs

Key Responsibilities of Girls’ Education Advisory Body

The responsibilities of the Girls’ Education Advisory Body include the following:

Advise the GEU on the establishment of GEN

Counsel on matters of girls’ education relating to the relevance, implementation, effectiveness and review of policies

Advise and support the GEU in the implementation of GEP

Advise the GEU on effective planning and coordination of efforts among implementing stakeholders, including NGOs

Undertake advocacy activities on girls’ education

Advise the GEU on the coordination of activities of organisations working on girls’ education

Upon request or on its own initiative, consider and make recommendations on any matter being considered on girls’ education

Advise the GEU on the development and implementation of girls’ education activities

Convene technical task forces as necessary for specific assignments and activities

Provide guidance and feedback on assignments and activities of the task forces as they deem convenient

In consultation with the membership of the GEN, advise the GEU on steps to align current and future girls’ education interventions in Ghana with the Government of Ghana Gender in Education Policy

In collaboration with the GEU, convene annual review meetings of the GEN to share updates, knowledge, best practices and to develop a plan of action

Modus Operandi of Girls’ Education Network

The GEU shall convene meetings of the Advisory Body with the support from a co-convener. Members of the Advisory Body shall be selected by the Director of GEU, in consultation with the Director-General of GES, and by the request of the organisations and institutions as a member on the Advisory Body serves for a period of not more than three years.

Other activities within the leadership of the GEN are as follows:

The chairperson of the Advisory Body shall convene and chair all meetings

Members shall meet, at least four times in a year, at a place and time as the chairperson may determine

Emergency meetings shall be held with notification of at least 48 hours

Two-thirds of the members present shall constitute a quorum for meetings

The Advisory Body may admit any person(s) or co-opt member(s) to its meetings whenever it considers it appropriate to do so

Decisions shall be determined by consensus among members present

The agenda and minutes of meetings shall be shared with members of the GEN

The Advisory Body may, at any time, appoint any committee that it considers appropriate and to assign to them a task.

Funding of Activities of Girls’ Education Network

The Ghana Education Advisory Body shall receive financial and logistical support from member institutions in organising meetings and stakeholder engagements;

The Advisory Body shall identify other strategies to promote the sustainability of its work beyond its seed funding from DFID through CAMFED.

Remarks by GEU Director on the state of Girls’ Education

Mrs. Catherine Nutsugah-Mikado presented the state of girls’ education in Ghana on behalf of GEU, where she hailed development partners, organisations and other stakeholders, including but not limited to UNICEF, CAMFED Ghana, DFID, World Vision and IBIS for their support to the GEU and girls’ education over the years.

She said the GEU had done several activities to promote girls’ education as follows:

Mapping of CBOs/NGOs into girls’ education, with funding from UNICEF [300 CBOs/NGOs have, so far, been registered]

Developed a directory of CBOs/NGOs into girls’ education with the support of PBME, Institute of Development Studies (UCC), GNECC, ICT Unit of GES and GES EMIS officers at the districts and regions [Directory yet to be published]

Development of a Resource Handbook [Almost 90% complete with unedited copies now available for review. Funding: UNICEF and DFID]

Development of Gender in Education Policy [Work in progress, 3^rd Draft, with funding from UNICEF]

Conducted a case study on girls who dropped out of school due to pregnancy and developed preventive and facilitative strategies for re-integration [Work completed with the Report of key findings yet to be incorporated into the policy guidelines with funding from UNICEF]

Development of guidelines to address pregnancy and schooling issues with funding from UNICEF [Work in progress, 3^rd Draft being developed]

Collection of baseline data in three districts [Jasikan, Atiwa and Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa]

Organised Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) programme in two districts, including Jasikan and Atiwa

Organised an Annual Girls’ Education Review meeting with funding from UNICEF

Provided PASS Scholarship to 22,784 girls with funding from DFID [Status: First batch of beneficiaries in their final year of senior high school education]

Development of a website for the GEU with funding from DFID [Work in progress]

Conducting research on the PASS Scholarship programme to ascertain its effectiveness in promoting girls’ education

Capacity building for Girls’ Education Officers with funding from UNESCO [35 officers have been trained so far]

STEM clinics held at Jasikan and Atiwa with funding from UNESCO

The Right to Play supported the training of 65 mathematics and science teachers in Greater Accra Region to promote gender participation in the two subjects.

Solidarity Message from DFID

An official of the Department for International Development (DFID), Susan Mensah, pledged the willingness of the Department to continue to work with the GES and other collaborators in order to promote quality education, including girls’ education, in Ghana.

Activities of Organisations in Girls’ Education

Officials of agencies, organisations and units, such as EMIS of MoE, UNESCO, WFP, British Council, T-TEL, World Vision, CAMFED, Varkey Foundation, IBIS, Right to Play, Discovery Alliance, MURAG, TVM, Guidance and Counselling Unit of GES and ActionAid addressed the participants on the activities of their organisations and institutions in promoting girls’ education.

Presentation by EMIS on Girls’ Education

Mr. Herbert Goeman of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) Unit of MoE presented the modus operandi and the statistical data on girls’ education in the country, and raised a number of issues, including the following:

EMIS collects annual census on education from schools through the district education directorates which usually happens on February 28 and November 30 each year;

EMIS gathers two main types of information, namely; teacher information and school information (i.e. level/state/type/location/address and the kind of educational management of the school as well as the nature of school infrastructure/furniture/buildings/textbooks and school movement/attendance, which covers repeaters and pregnancies).

Gender parity index is 1.01 in primary schools as junior high schools record 0.97 for girls, a development which needs improvement to include senior high and tertiary schools as well.

“Data collection is a Herculean task but could be made simple, accurate and reliable with the support of all stakeholders, including teachers, heads of schools and officers of GES”, Mr. Goeman stated.

Remarks by UNESCO on Girls’ Education

Mr. Odoi Asare of UNESCO made the following observations:

Inadequate financial and human resources lowering the performance of GEU

Low participation of girls in mathematics, science, technology and engineering courses

Limited mandate of GEU to basic schools to blame for low participation of girls in senior high school education

Weak coordination of the activities and performance of girls in education

To resolve the issues, UNESCO said it undertook and would continue to undertake these activities:

Trained about 50% GEU staff on the development, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes on girls’ education [i.e. trained 235 girls’ education officers: 9 at GES HQ in Accra, 10 regional officers and 216 district officers]

Collection of baseline data in three districts (i.e. Jasikan, Atiwa and Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa)

Organised STEM clinics in two districts, such as Jasikan and Atiwa [400 girls participated]

Capacity building of girls’ education officers on project reporting, monitoring and evaluation

Shall organise a series of STEM clinics

Shall have consultative meetings with GEU and stakeholders on promote girls’ education

UN-WEP on Girls’ Education

Magdalene Owusu Moshi of the United Nations World Food Programme outlined the following activities as their contributions to girls’ education in Ghana:

Supporting GEU to address Gender Parity Gaps (GPGs) in junior high schools in Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions since 1998

Conducted a market assessment in February 2016 on girls who dropped out of school and who were involved in child labour

Distributed nutrition-sensitive packages to girls with 80% attendance at junior high schools

Involved in sexual and reproductive health sensitisation programmes

Distributed items like iodised salt, pulses, and oil [The distribution exercise happened after classes in the afternoon]

UNESCO to provide girls in Volta, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions with cash transfers and which shall be paid to their parents or care-givers through financial institutions

Remarks by British Council on Girls’ Education

Official of the British Council Michael Owusu-Preko said that the Council has been involved in the management of scholarships, including the Vodafone Ghana Foundation’s scholarship, which supports girls, who are interested in the study of science at the senior high school level.

Mr. Owusu-Preko informed that the Vodafone Scholarship is intended to support needy girls with high academic grades as the British Council organises camps for girls, where they are mentored on a wide range of skills, including financial skills.

According to him, the Council awards 100 children per year with each child receiving Ghc3, 000.00 with textbooks also given to them to enable them attend extended classes.

Activities of T-TEL in Girls’ Education

Speaking on the contributions of the Transforming Teacher Education and Learning (T-TEL) programme to girls’ education, Ms. Marjorie Tackie, said the programme was a four-year Government of Government’s programme, supported by the UK Department for DFID, to transform the delivery of pre-service teacher education in Ghana.

Ms. Tackie named the following activities of T-TEL in promoting girls’ education:

Piloting of a Gender Handbook for Teaching Practice Mentors at Bongo and KEEA districts [Report to be completed by July 2017]

Planning for a sexual harassment study in Colleges of Education [Study to start by January 2018]

On behalf of T-TEL, she acknowledged GEU as an important partner in raising the issue of gender parity in education within the MoE and teacher education structures in Ghana.

World Vision International on Girls’ Education

World Vision’s Gregory Dery identified the organisation’s activities as follows:

Conducted a training programme on reading improvement for teachers of kindergarten and lower primary schools in the 25 beneficiary districts

Formation and strengthening of reading camps in beneficiary communities

Distributed bicycles to 3000 vulnerable girls in some rural communities in Kassena-Nankana West District

Provided schools with gender-separated KVIPs with menstrual hygiene management units Provided safe drinking water through bore holes

Facilitated the formation and operations of savings groups in communities to improve the income levels of parents and guardians

Trained farmers on improved crop and livestock production

Provided 350 farmers with resources to improve crop and livestock production

Ended violence-against-children campaign with documentaries with TV3 on child marriage at Nkwanta, teenage pregnancy and child exploitation at Kintampo and child trafficking at Krachi

Building children’s life skills and resilience in life

Formation and strengthening of district and community child protection committees, including child online protection

 CAMFED on Girls’ Education

Led by Deloris Dickson, CAMFED did the following major activities in girls’ education:

Granted scholarship packages to girls in senior high schools

Gave out comprehensive scholarship packages to girls in tertiary education

Registered 17,786 past beneficiaries who are now members of the CAMFED Alumni

CAMFED’s projects have helped 387 primary schools, 332 junior high and 101 senior high schools in 31 districts of Central, Northern, Upper East and Upper West regions

Activities of Varkey Foundation in Girls’ Education

According to Muniratu Issifu, Varkey Foundation undertook the following major activities:

Building the capacity of teachers on girls’ education

Conducted advocacy campaigns in teaching practice at the highest level of policy making

Rolled out the MGCubed GEC Transition Programme

Executed a programme dubbed, “Train for Tomorrow” in Eastern Region

Did the programme, “Train to Reach Remote Classrooms” with a pilot project in 142 classrooms in 72 public schools within two regions [Helped girls in grades 2 to 5 in mathematics and science as “wonder women” met after school to learn life skills and gender equality issues. Programme was implemented from July 2013 to April 2017]

Activities of IBIS in Girls’ Education

Mr. Wumbei Dokurugu led the discussion on the activities of IBIS Ghana as follows:

Built a model school which is sensitive to the needs of the girls

Professional development of teachers using learner-centred methodology and gender-sensitive pedagogy

Promotion of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHRs)

Empowerment of SMCs and PTAs

Use of Girls’ Parliament, an innovation to improve girls’ speaking and debating skills on matters of human rights and reproductive health

Provision of in-school supervision and teacher-support services

Provision of ICT laboratories, science laboratories, libraries and hostel accommodation facilities

Activities of “Right to Play” in Girls’ Education

Mr. Dao Kwabena presented the activities of the Right to Play as follows:

Used child rights clubs to raise awareness of parents on the learning needs of children

Organised play days using child rights clubs

Organised school-cluster-outreach programmes focusing on menstrual hygiene management

Established a “Community of Practice” programme for teachers and district officials

Activities of Discovery Alliance in Girls’ Education

Mr. Julius Agbeko did the presentation for Discovery Alliance as follows:

Established 40 learning centres in Accra and Kumasi [42,354 students and 1,157 teachers have benefited from the activities of the learning centres]

Trained over 15,000 educators on girls’ educational issues

Formed 1,190 girls’ clubs in the beneficiary communities

Empowered 839 communities on girls’ education using Community Action Plans

Activities of MURAG in Girls’ Education

An official of the Muslims Relief Association of Ghana (MURAG) revealed activities as follows:

Improved the rights of children, especially those in secular education

Organised sensitive workshops for Muslim stakeholders in 14 districts

Increased enrollment and retention of Muslim girls in schools

Organised a total of 14 workshops in seven districts in five regions

Organised advocacy workshops on the right age for school enrollment and the need to enroll vulnerable children in schools

Created awareness on the benefits of girls’ education

Activities of TVM in Girls’ Education

Mr. Jeffrey Baa-Poku of the True Vine Ministry (TVM) identified the following major activities:

Providing hope and redirecting teenage mothers in deprived communities in Ghana

Using research, counselling and health education to improve girls’ education

Projects like Back-to-School Project and Kids-in-School Project shall start in September 2017

The TVM Scholarship Fund to support needy girls in school is yet to be rolled out

Activities of Guidance and Counselling Unit in Girls’ Education

Mr. Roland Takyi of the Guidance and Counselling Unit of GES identified the following activities:

Provided all districts and schools, especially senior high schools with trained counselors

Encouraging counsellors to support children, including girls, with orientation, appraisal and career guidance services

Tackling cases of abuse and corporal punishment in schools and institutions

Activities of ActionAid in Girls’ Education

Sumaila Abdul-Rahman of ActionAid stated the following activities:

Formation of boys and girls camps

Working with the beneficiary districts to create girl-friendly learning conditions in schools, including the supply of classroom infrastructure and textbooks

Using legal procedures to seek justice for abused girls and those into forced marriages

Constructed girl-friendly classrooms, including changing rooms and violence-reporting rooms

Activities of UNICEF in Girls’ Education             

Madeez Adamu-Issah of UNICEF identified the following activities of the Fund:

Identified vulnerable groups, especially girls, within the beneficiary communities

Supported girls with menstrual hygiene management and child protection services

Provided healthcare services to girls living with HIV/AIDS

Organised nutrition-related and WASH programmes

Involved in the activities of the Complementary Basic Education programme

Involved in Inclusive Education activities with vulnerable groups and persons with disabilities

Involved in Communication for Development activities like capacity building, sensitisation and partnership with key stakeholders on the right age for school enrollment, retention and completion

Organised sporting activities for improved school enrollment and student leadership

Working with MURAG to create awareness among Muslim leaders on girls’ education

Involved in planning and policy implementation activities (i.e. NESAR, SPAM/SPIP development and ADEOPs)

Organised gender-sensitive INSET using the District Teacher Support and Training (DTST) module

Supplied teaching and learning materials for improved girls’ education

Working with School Health Education Programme (SHEP) and the Guidance and Counselling Unit to provide safe and protective schools for children, including girls

Involved in cross-cutting activities like research, documentation, curriculum review and development, and in the development teaching manuals for enhanced girls’ education

Shall roll out a programme from 2018 to 2022 to address issues of equity and quality of girls’ education (i.e. using girls as an entry point to promote school enrollment, retention, completion and transition; and to improve learning outcomes among girls)

Review Questions for Enhanced Performance

Each presentation of the organisations on their roles in girls’ education attracted varied questions from the participants, some of which are as follows:

What is the nature of the public-private budgetary support to the GEU for girls’ education activities in Ghana?

What is the nature of coordination and monitoring activities of girls’ education within the GES?

What are the areas of capacity building for teachers as used by the GEU?

What is the nature of the website of GEU?

What are the outcomes of activities of the GEU in promoting girls’ education in Ghana?

What are the policies for promoting girls’ education in Ghana?

What is the state of the Girls in Education Policy?

What are the timelines for executing plans that promote girls’ education in Ghana?

What are the criteria for selecting the districts for STEM programmes?

What are the criteria for selecting the beneficiaries of the various scholarship schemes and what are their levels of sustainability?

What are the criteria for selecting and distributing educational materials and other packages to beneficiary schools and pupils?

What are the mechanisms for avoiding duplication of activities of organisations in the schools?

How are the activities of the organisations integrated into the school curriculum?

What are the organisations into child protection doing to tackle forced marriage?

What are the records on the distribution of counsellors in schools and institutions?

How are pupils and students supported in school selection and placement?

What is the level of collaboration between school counsellors and girls’ education coordinators?

How are the issues of confidentiality and community relations managed in child protection activities of the organisations?

How are the girls empowered to give evidence of acts of abuse and sexual harassments?

How can the organisations strengthen their network with other organisations in the performance of their functions?

What is the capacity and tenure of the girls’ education officers?

Planning Activities of the Participants

The two-day meeting yielded important points for action and led by Madeez Adamu-Issah of UNICEF, the House decided on the following points as their resolution and the way forward:

Efforts shall be made to strengthen the activities of the GEN.

Regional girls’ education officers should report the outcome of the Meeting to their directors of education for them to also engage the organisations working in their jurisdictions.

Efforts should be made to complete and to share copies of the map of organisations in girls’ education to promote coordination and monitoring.

The schools and districts should be empowered to strengthen their collaboration and partnership activities with stakeholders and organisations.

Efforts should be made to allow for proper and timely analysis of all EMIS data on girls’ education.

Organisations should be supported to identify the key plans and vision of the GEU to enable them work towards achieving key outputs within the Education Strategy Plan.

The Annual Girls’ Education Review meetings should be replicated in all regions for key stakeholders like chiefs, opinion leaders and assembly members to also participate.

The GEU should develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for organisations into girls’ education to follow in the performance of their duties.

There is a need for the GEN to link up with agencies like the District Assemblies and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) for support in promoting girls’ education.

Organisations should use role models like opinion leaders, alumni and celebrities to sensitise parents and community members on girls’ education.

Local communities and schools should be sensitised on the maintenance and protection of school facilities at all times.

The issue of decentralisation in education should be made to work.

Obnoxious beliefs on girls’ education should be identified and revised.

Civil society organisations should be effectively involved in girls’ education.

National girls’ education officers should be supported to effectively coordinate and to monitor all girls’ education activities in the regions, districts and schools.

Every activity on girls’ education in schools and at the districts should correlate with the objectives of GEU/GES and MoE.

Girls should be encouraged to do STEM courses in schools, colleges and universities.

Issues of girls’ education should be backed by policy.

Conclusion

It is not the case that the writer has been briefed or has read all of this stuff somewhere. He did witness proceedings himself and without any shred of equivocation, he stands to say that majority of development partners and organisations operating in education in Ghana are doing well. As we applaud the good performing ones, we appeal to those that have not yet registered with the GEU/GES to do so and to be part of the Girls’ Education Network as soon as practicable.

By: Anthony Kwaku Amoah (The writer is an educationist and a public relations officer at the Headquarters of Ghana Education Service. – E-mail: [email protected])

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According to the directorate, most of the 200 uncompleted projects in the region were due to the non-payment of contractors.

[contextly_sidebar id=”X63cgzo68smtHINTnl37i3BbwJGUA5H1″]Raymond Abatanie, the Regional Deputy Director of Education in-charge of Planning and Projects, told Citi News, the problem required urgent attention.

“We have collated over 200 projects scattered over the 13 districts of the region, ranging from Administration blocks, Dormitories, Six unit Classroom blocks for the Basic level and so on.”

“Most of these projects have been abandoned, most of them have just skeletal stuff on the ground. Others that have completed and handed over and are in use but there are even threats by most of the contractors to go back and lock these facilities over non-payment.”

“From March 2000 up to now, most contractors have not been paid, others have completed but are not willing to handover because they have not been paid. Examples are the two-storey Fumbisi administration, Gbeogo school for the Deaf Boys dormitory, St. John Integrated dining hall and many other projects.”

“39 projects that are completed for long and we don’t know why the contractors cannot be paid and it’s a big problem to education delivery,” he said.

Mr. Abatanie warned that any delay in the payment of monies owed the contractors may result in dire consequences on teaching and learning in the area.

“Government should try and pay for those projects that are completed and in use so that contractors will not lock these facilities when school reopens.  And those that are completed and not handover, the government should also pay them off and also payments for contractors whose projects are stalled.”

Mr. Abatanie further noted that some districts and municipal education offices, especially at Binduri, Nabdam, Bolgatanga, Kassena Nankana,  Builsa North, and South were either housed on rented premises or in classrooms.

He said, even though the Bongo and Garu education offices were about 90 percent completed, the contractors were adamant in completing the projects and handing them over.

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By: Frederick Awuni/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The beneficiaries who are second-year students pursuing various degree programmes will be supported through their tertiary education, while they also undergo grooming to take up leadership roles.

Eleven young women and nine men  would this year undergo a three-year programme, unlike the first batch of 14 who started the programme last year.

They are from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Ghana, Ghana Institute of Journalism (GIJ), University of Professional Studies (UPS), University of Allied Sciences, University of Mines and technology (UMAT) and University for Development Studies (UDS).

Emulate Kufuor

Speaking at the scholarship award ceremony in Accra yesterday, a renowned playwright and public speaker, Mr James Ebo Whyte, admonished the beneficiaries to seek knowledge, be unique, have faith, obey their calling, be unstoppable and respect themselves and others.

“Accumulate knowledge, stand out by being unique. There must be something special about you. Have faith and believe that the impossible is possible. You must be unstoppable such that nothing can keep you down. Discover your calling and obey it. Finally respect yourself so that others will respect you,” he urged.

He said such traits would help keep the legacy of former President Mr John Agyekum Kufuor, the founder of the foundation, and make them good leaders as well.

“Mr Kufuor transformed politics in Ghana by showing how a politician can show genuine love to people of all walks of life  and respect humanity,” he said.

Mr Whyte urged the winners to lead lives that would leave a befitting legacy for their children and future generations.

Laudable interventions

The Minister of State for Tertiary Education, Professor Kwesi Yankah, said interventions to groom the youth into effective leaders were laudable .

He expressed concern over the deficit of leadership in Africa and Ghana. “We see retrogression, leadership is on a downward spiral, he added.

He said he was happy that the beneficiaries were chosen purely on merit from the various universities.

To reduce the government’s burden of financing education, Prof Yankah called on private bodies to buy into the educational agenda that the government was pursuing and support it.

After the students had pledged to abide by the virtues of integrity, accountability, transparency, love for nation, patriotism in business and governance, they were presented with certificates of induction into the programme.

The awardees, who would also receive a certificate of completion after the three-year programme, also pledged to be studious, diligent, support their fellow scholars, be devoted to national development and promote values which would make Ghana great and strong.

Grooming

In an interview, the Chief Executive of the Kufour Foundation, Prof. Baffour Agyeman-Duah, said each student would receive a GH¢2,000 stipend every semester and would in the course of the three years take part in seminars, mentoring sessions, interactions with former President Kufuor and other leaders, community services programme and internships.

He explained that the rationale behind the programme was to equip the new generation of leaders with the right mindset to transform the country.

“Some traits and values such as nationalism, accountability, integrity and patriotism are not taught in our main stream education. So we try to inculcate these values in them and that will help them to be unique wherever they find themselves,” he said.

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Source: Graphic.com.gh

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This follows a statement from the Ghana Education Service (GES) over the weekend, that placed an indefinite embargo on the process.

But according to the teacher association, the decision by the GES is a wrong move.

The President of NAGRAT, Christian Addae-Poku, told Citi News the wrong dates of birth were caused by the GES, and therefore they must give teachers the opportunity to rectify them.

“For the change of date of birth, the solution is not for the GES to place an embargo on it. It is for the GES to investigate and approve whether the person really deserves it or not. When someone is employed at the GES, the person sends his documents to the Ghana Education Service. They do the data entry and we have had many cases where in the process of entering the data, they have made mistakes.”

While urging the Ghana Education Service to accept requests for change of dates of birth, Mr. Addae Poku intimated that, most teachers were unaware GES had captured the wrong dates of birth until the GES began the process to migrate unto a biometric system.

“The most important thing is for the GES to investigate to ascertain the truth or otherwise of it because there are many ways to check this. They should not generalize it and make it appear as if anybody who is applying for a change in date of birth is wrong. It is not right for them to do that, they should investigate and the right thing must be done.”

Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has said that its decision to halt the process is because it was a strain on its administrative resources considering the time involved.

He told Citi News that, “there is much waste of quality time of management duty. It also involves so much that, a batch can spend more than two days or three on the change or scrutiny of those documents…. So there is the need for us to lay an embargo on this thing so that other duties can also be carried out by management.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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According to the Association, the NCTE is usurping the powers of University Councils, and acting arbitrarily to run the various Technical Universities.

[contextly_sidebar id=”1PEDIcSY3byXlSCgqz9zSyKbpGloCGJ0″]It said the development has caused some unrest among the various teacher unions within the Polytechnics and Technical Universities.

In a statement copied to citifmonline.com, the Association also accused the Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, of conniving with the NCTE to violate the Provisions of the Technical Universities Act, 2016 (Act 922), which called for a constitution of a University council to run the various Technical Universities for one year.

It said the various Councils have since been dissolved by the NCTE and the Minister to enable the NCTE exert authority over the Technical Universities.

“The Association observes and believes same to be true that the NCTE has a hidden agenda and hence has resorted to a deliberate feet-dragging strategy to frustrate the transition process and destroy the very fine idea of Technical University introduced by the previous Government. ..The Association also believes that the deliberate feet-dragging is a Machiavellian tactic of the NCTE being employed in the Transitional arrangements to secure the ambition of some of their top Management and cronies from the Traditional Universities to take up key positions in the newly converted Technical Universities. POTAG views these acts as diabolical and shall resist them vehemently,” the statement said.

It further accused the minister of refusing to grant them an audience to discuss the matter which they say is likely to lead them to hold a massive demonstration to express their resentment.

POTAG has however called on the government to among other things reconstitute the Governing Councils of the Technical Universities and Polytechnics to enable the Technical Universities to operate as effectively as mandated.

It has also called on the government to convert of the two (2) remaining Polytechnics (Bolgatanga and Wa) to Technical University as soon as possible.

It also reminded government to expedite action on the payment of their Book and Research Allowances for the 2016/2017 Academic year which payment they say is long overdue.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

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This is the assertion by founding president of Imani Africa, Franklin Cudjoe.

[contextly_sidebar id=”7oTEuHICPMR9SrQW8aIlD8oVYYUw9MH1″]According to him, the size of the country’s economy makes it possible for the country to have fewer ministers than it currently has to operate.

His comment comes on the back of recent ministerial appointments by President Nana Akufo-Addo, which brought to a total, 110 ministers, including deputies who will serve in his government.

“This country can do with about 30 ministers and that is set. I’ve been to Australia and the UK and their institutions and ministries that are being collapsed into desks for agency heads. That is a country that is vast like a continent in itself. I think 30 ministers can do for this country,” he told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News.

Mr. Cudjoe said he believes the deputy ministers named by the president for some ministries were unnecessary and if given the chance, he will prune the number to the region of 30 ministers.

He noted that, some developed countries including Australia and the UK had resorted to collapsing their many similar ministries into major single ministries.

Akufo-Addo is the first president in the 4th Republic to have over one hundred ministers serving in his government, and according to Franklin Cudjoe, that does not auger well for the country especially as the president, Nana Akufo-Addo, had assured Ghanaians of protecting the public purse and being prudent in spending.

He said the current situation will lead to redundancy.

“You would have thought that the words used by the president himself in the run-up to the 2016 elections that he will protect the public purse will be minded so that when I hear the minister for information saying the economy is a weak economy and so you need a strong army of people, well then you may as well add militia people,” he said.

He argued that although the president had the legal right to appoint as many ministers of his choice, he must not be seen to be over-exercising that right which will not ultimately inure to the benefit of Ghanaians.

“The second justification for this which tells me that we’ve completely lost the plot is this whole business that because the constitution allows it, there is an open-ended opportunity, in my description of prudence, that falls under legal plunder.  The fact that the law says that you can go and on does not mean that after you spoke about the very weak fundamentals of the economy you met, you should  plunder it this manner,” he said.

Reacting to calls from pro-government elements that Ghanaians should judge the president by the delivery of his government rather than his current appointments, Franklin Cudjoe said, “an output based governance is based on some serious policy. You take education for instance, the major deliverable is ‘Free SHS’, have you seen any major policy document guiding how this will be deployed?… Have you seen a policy called planting for food and jobs? To see that we have a minister of state for Agriculture at the presidency and at the same time we have two deputy ministers for Agriculture, what will they be doing?” he quizzed.

Meanwhile, the Minister for Information, Mustapha Hamid, said, the “weak nature of the economy, requires a competent army” of people to restore it and achieve the needed transformation.

According to him, “the [President] has been guided by the competencies and experiences of the people and the legal requirements for making such appointments.”

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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They are Sekina Ahmed, Emmanuel Gyeni Blay, Ebenezer Anane, Philip Danyomah and Lucy Onso-Nyameye Ama Ngofuoh.

Ahmed and Blay were honoured at the Junior High School (JHS) category while Anane, Danyomah and Ngofuoh were honoured at the Senior High School (SHS) category.

Gyeni from the Nzemamaanle Complex School in Half-Assini scored aggregate six in the BECE, while Ahmed of Tikobo No.1 D/A JHS had aggregate nine with Ngofuoh of Armokwaw-Suazo D/A JHS obtaining aggregate 14.

Anane and Danyomah both of the Half-Assini Senior High School obtained aggregates eight and 14 respectively in the WASSCE.

They each received a Certificate and an undisclosed amount of money.

Their awards formed part of the 60th Independence anniversary celebration in the Jomoro District.

The event under the theme ‘Mobilizing for Ghana’s Future’, took place at the Half-Assini Senior High School Park and was attended by more than two thousand people including 20 basic schools and two SHSs in the District.

The District Coordinating Director, Mr Boffour Ahmed Haruna, who is also the Acting District Chief Executive, addressed the ceremony on behalf of the President Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo-Addo.

He earlier inspected a parade of School Children, Cadet Corps and Voluntary Organisations and also took the salute with assistance of ASP Charles Mensah, District Crime Officer.

Catholic JHS and Christian Academy both of Half-Assini were the best schools in the march past and were presented with a plaque and certificate each.

The ceremony was attended by the Member of Parliament for the area, Mr Paul Essien together with traditional rulers, security agencies, workers and the general public.

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Source: GNA

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