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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He has lamented the trend is a threat to the human resource development of the Region because, in his words, “the root which will replace us is virtually dying out”.

The Minister has linked the trend to the low performance of Junior High School (JHS) students in the Region, a situation he believes has prevented most JHS leavers from meeting the admission requirements of the top schools that are mostly based in the Cape Coast area.

The Regional Minister expressed the worry yesterday at a media soiree held at the Central Regional Coordinating Council to elaborate on the successes and challenges in 2017 and the programmes for 2018.

Answering a question on the level of education in the Region noted for first-class senior high schools and tertiary institutions, he noted that though the region boasts of numerous educational facilities, the children in it are mostly far away from benefiting adequately from them.

“The statistics of our young people, whether they are getting to our schools or not – and the statistics are quite grim, grim statistics”, the Minister announced.

Citing examples to back his worries, Kwamena Duncan revealed, “2014/15, 2015/16 (academic years), for Holy Child School, not a single girl from all the public schools in the Region got admitted there, not one”.

He continued, “The story is not any different from Wesley Girls, from the Mfantsipims, from the Adisadels”.

He has therefore made a clarion call on all stakeholders in the Region to combine forces to ensure better academic performance at the basic levels of public schools in order to help get more children from the Region into the first class schools the Region boasts of.

As a measure to tackle the situation, the Regional Minister has announced that, as part of his overall strategy to improve education in Central Region, he will have a meeting of all Junior High School heads as well as leaders of Junior High School Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) at the Regional Coordinating Council in 2018 to discuss basic education challenges in the Region.

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

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The school’s anniversary will kick off with a Home Coming Congress at the Tettey Puplampu Assembly Hall at 4:oopm on Friday, November 24, 2017.

Highlights of the congress will include the review and adoption of the NIMELI Constitutions, Election of National Executives and National Roll Call.

This will provide an opportunity for the old students to touch base with the school, network and have fun.

The Saturday event will be graced by some high profile personalities  including  Djetse Nene Abram Kabu Akuaku III, Paramount Chief of the Ada Traditional Area, Dr. Nii Kotei Dzani, President of Groupe Ideal, who’s also the Greater Accra Representative on the Council of State.

Others expected to be at the program are the Member of Parliament for Ada, Mr. Doyoe Cudjoe Ghansah, and the  Member of Parliament for Sege Constituency Christian Otuteye.

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By: Pearl Akanya Ofori/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Concerns have been raised about the quality of meals being served over one million and seven thousand pupils who are entitled to one hot meal per day under the programme.

[contextly_sidebar id=”vdF961ea4UbyIxbcghCqQQeBUCYVU9BW”]The Public Relations Officer for the Secretariat, Alba Siba, however insisted on the Citi Breakfast Show that caterers under the programme are constantly monitored to ensure they strictly adhere to laid down procedures in preparing these meals.

Mr. Siba also indicated that, caterers are intermittently trained to deliver quality meals.

“As I even indicated, we have given them some brief orientation because these are new caterers who have taken over. It is an ongoing activity, and as and when we think there is the need for them to get orientation, then we give them. And besides that too, we have a nutrition department at the school feeding programme that collaborates with other nutrition departments in the various districts so they together do the menu according to what the District potential is in terms of food items. We do all these things to ensure that the caterer is constantly monitored because we know that for some of the caterers, if we do not monitor them, they can cut corners.”

Meanwhile, a coalition responsible for monitoring basic education across the country, Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition, says it has drawn the attention of the Education Ministry to some daunting challenges confronting the implementation of the free SHS policy.

Citi News‘ assessment of the policy on Thursday, revealed that some students at the La Presec were studying on concrete blocks.

Students at the Kwabenya Senior High School were also served meals without protein.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, the Coordinator of the Coalition, Veronica Dzeago, said although her outfit is yet to begin any formal monitoring, reports indicate that adequate preparation has not been made.

“As a Coalition, we have not started any monitoring, but we have received reports from sources on the ground and the report concerning the issue we raised about the system not being prepared enough to deal with the enrollment that was going to come with the roll-out of the free SHS policy, so what you saw is a confirmation of what is really happening on the ground.”

“We have also received reports from various parts of the country that there are challenges. The discussions have been ongoing and we have had the opportunity to speak to the key people from the Ministry of Education and we have put the issues before them, and we have been given the assurance that plans are in place to address the issues we identified.”

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Our nutrition Department monitors food quality – School Feeding PRO appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

This follows the completion of the placement of qualified of Junior High School (JHS) graduates into Senior High Schools by the Computerized School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) on September 30.

[contextly_sidebar id=”EQ75ojD5GTPxgKLCHY70qJAl9MM5AfYy”]”All heads have also been requested to provide full updates of their current situation in terms of furniture, teaching and learning materials, etc. This is to inform and guide management in its decision and immediate actions required to ensure full implementation of the free Senior High School Programme,” a statement from the GES said.

The Computerized School Selection Placement System initially encountered some challenges, with error notices greeting some BECE graduates who had been trying, since September 1, to access the website for self-placement.

But the government said these problems had been addressed, following the setting up of a new website.

The original website for the self-placement, www.myjhsresult.net, now contains a link that directs users to the new website, www.cssps.gov.gh.

The issues with the CSSPS began following the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) announcement of an extension for the placement of BECE candidates after it emerged that over 100,000 qualified candidates had still not been placed.

The GES asked qualified students who were not placed to go online, and select an option available during the window which was eventually extended five times.

Free SHS: Angry parents of stranded students petition Minister

Over 50 parents last week petitioned the Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, at the Regional Coordinating Council over what they term as the refusal of school authorities to provide their wards with boarding accommodation.

The parents, who have been traveling to and fro from Tema, Kumasi, Kasoa, Accra, Afram Plains and Savlugu in the Northern Region, say they have had to abandon their work to follow up on these issues for their wards.

The implementation of the Free SHS this September for first year students, has put enormous pressure on the facilities of most schools across the country. Some heads have improvised to accommodate the numbers, but others simply cannot take anymore.

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

The post SHS placement ends, school heads to enroll students by Oct. 4 appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Whereas about 1,984 SHS classrooms need major repair works, 4,079 require minor touches.

Ghana as at 2015 had 863 Senior High School. Of the number 562 are run by government while the remaining 301 are privately owned.

This was contained in a Ministry of Education report dubbed: Report on basic statistics and planning parameters for Senior High Schools in Ghana for the 2014/2015 academic year.

[contextly_sidebar id=”lkCwKumE9MKXC107fh7THCJjlKAH5dUO”]According to the report, Ghana could boast of 18,532 permanent classrooms which represented a 5.8% increase as compared to the figure of 2013/2014 academic year which was 17,523.

“…there are 18,532 permanent classrooms in the schools, and this represents an increase of 5.8% over the 2013/2014 figure of 17,523. Out of the 18,532 permanent classrooms, 1,984 classrooms need major repairs, and this constitutes a reduction of 6.1% when compared to the previous year’s figure of 2,114. Again, of the total number of permanent classrooms, 4,079 of them need minor repairs, and this represents a marginal increase of 0.6% over the previous year’s figure of 4,053,” the report added.

The report also noted that generally, Ashanti Region “has the highest number of classrooms needing major repairs (322) while the Upper East Region has the lowest number (75).”

“…The percentage of permanent classrooms in Senior High Schools needing major repairs is 10.7%, representing a drop of 3.8% when related to the 2013/2014 figure. The percentage of permanent classrooms in Senior High Schools needing minor repairs is 22.0%, showing a drop of 4.8% over the previous year’s figure of 23.1%.”

The report also showed that comparing the conditions of facilities by regional figures, SHS classrooms in the Volta Region “are in the worst state of disrepair with 16.1% of permanent classrooms needing major repairs while the Ashanti Region has the lowest figure (8.0%).”

Free SHS policy & rush for School placements 

This information comes at a time when there is a rush for SHS placements following the rolling out of government’s free SHS policy.

The Ghana Education Service (GES), last week Friday announced the posting of over 400,000 BECE candidates to various Senior High Schools in the country.

Following the breakdown of the website for the computerised placement system, government subsequently introduced a new website to facilitate the process and extended a 48-hour deadline for the registration to Thursday, September 7, 2017.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey & Melvin Clottey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Over 6,000 SHS classrooms need repairs [Infographic] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Of the 872 SHSs in Ghana, 66% are government-managed while the remainder is privately owned.

Also worthy of notice in the data is the fact that the Eastern Region, which has the second highest number of Senior High Schools in Ghana, 112, receives the most number of Junior High School graduates from other regions to pursue their Secondary education there.

The Eastern Region also records the highest competition rate; the percentage of SHS students who are able to successfully complete SHS.

Greater Accra has the lowest percentage rate of 27.5%, indicating that about 72% of students who attend Senior High School in Accra do not complete.

See the infographic below for a breakdown of the figures across the country.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Regional distribution of Senior High Schools in Ghana [Infographic] appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The deadline is now midnight on Thursday, September 7, 2017.

[contextly_sidebar id=”KnMpiI9s4PPSHPN4JMdLpqtGO82BKnjp”]A statement signed by the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of pre-Tertiary Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, said this extension was done “in view of the challenges experienced.”

The Computerized School Selection Placement System (CSSPS) encountered some challenges, with error notices greeting some BECE graduates who have been trying, since September 1, to access the website for self-placement.

The government admitted to challenges in the process noting that its servers were overwhelmed.

A new website for the BECE self-placement process has also been set up by the GES.

The original website for the self-placement, www.myjhsresult.net, now contains a link that directs users to the new website, www.cssps.gov.gh.

The issues with the CSSPS began when the GES announced an extension for the placement of BECE candidates after it emerged that over 100,000 qualified candidates had still not been placed.

The GES asked qualified students who were not placed to go online and select an option available during the now-extended window.

These challenges have led some anxious parents to express fears that their wards may miss the deadline, but government assured that no candidate would be cut off by the deadline.

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

The post GES extends placement deadline for BECE candidates again appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, the challenge, which is due to overwhelmed system servers have been recurrent over the years and there was the need for the managers of the system to put in place measures to ensure that the system could cope with heavy website traffic.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GOWRFIfnwYehJB9MtO1YKSwejTt4dY5D”]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 advertised to enable parents and their wards access their Senior High School (SHS) admissions notices has been suffering intermittent downtime.

Those who sought to access the website were met with  error notices or managed to get in after several attempts.

According to some prospective SHS students, the situation inconvenienced them as they had 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.

Many fear the current situation may negatively impact the educational calendar for SHSs this year, but Mr. Yaw Amoateng says the development “is really not something new”.

“Every year whenever the results are out and there is school placement, we go through this ritual…  I think at the time of the system development, we should have anticipated that this challenge was going to occur at this time. Maybe to see how much load the system was going to take,” he said on Eyewitness News.

Explaining the situation, he said a cursory assessment of the challenges being experienced  “impacts on traffic because all of a sudden we have so many people who want to access the information on the site which is not originally designed to accommodate that number of people. There is a lot of traffic and the system is unable to support it.”

While indicating his optimism that the system was being worked on by its managers, he suggested that “Multiple access points could be created so that people can access the information through different routes. Alternatively, you can look at a scalable system so that as and when the traffic comes in, you scale it up to accommodate.”

We’re working to address the problem – Gov’t

Meanwhile, the government says it is working to overcome the Internet-based challenges that have plagued the Computerized School Selection Placement Secretariat (CSSPS), and frustrated Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) graduates trying to beat the deadline for placement.

Addressing the press on Monday, a Deputy Minister of Education in charge of pre-Tertiary Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, said the government shared in the anxiety of parents and is working to resolve the technical challenges.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post SHS placement challenges should’ve been anticipated – Analyst appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Council said the implementation of the SHS Policy must be a collective responsibility of all key stakeholders instead of leaving it on the shoulders of the Government alone.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wcfNdni1aDNmfwG55iR3VNHfmnuFWSqu”]“Considering the history of educational development in the country, we are convinced that the success of the Free SHS Policy must be a collective responsibility,” Reverend Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, the General Secretary of the CCG, said in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Sunday.

While commending the Government for its efforts at fulfilling the campaign promise, Rev Opuni-Frimpong said it needed to engage stakeholders to do more deliberations to ensure the smooth take off of the Policy in September.

The Parents-Teacher Associations (PTAs) the SHS level, Old Students Associations, and religious and traditional leaders are some of the stakeholders who could contribute substantially towards the provision of school infrastructure and their maintenance within the framework of the Policy, he said.

“Government has been very consistent and has sustained its pledge by implementing the free SHS Policy, which is very commendable.

“However, what is not certain at the moment is what the role of the key stakeholders would be under the Free SHS Policy,” Rev Opuni-Frimpong said.

He said because of the useful role stakeholders had played over the years in the education system, they were able to demand accountability from the managers of schools in ensuring quality education for Ghanaian students.

He said the PTAs, for instance, were billing parents, which they used as funds to help in providing some infrastructure and extra classes for the students, all geared towards enhancing teaching and learning.

“Now the Government is saying all infrastructure, feeding, and textbooks will be free, so the stakeholders must be properly engaged to see what role they will continue to play.

“We should not assume any role for any stakeholder, there must be proper engagements with clear-cut roles,” Rev Opuni-Frimpong said.

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Source: GNA

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