Today, we have met here from far and near to plant a mustard seed that will blossom into a magnificent giant tree in the never-ending endeavour for quality education delivery for generations yet to be born. This Congress, which is the inauguration of GNACOPS and a forum for stakeholders in education delivery in Ghana is under the theme: Reshaping Public–Private Partnership in Effective Education Delivery: The Role of GNACOPS. Participants will seeks to deliberate effective ways by which GNACOPS, representing the private school can augment the public-private partnership policy of the government in educational delivery in Ghana. We will also look at the necessary interventions from the government and other stakeholders towards mitigating the numerous challenges faced by the private schools.
The history of private sector participation in education delivery in the formal sector in Ghana, can be traced back into the pre-independence era with the establishment of the various mission schools. Now, there are over 22,000 basic and 654 Senior high private schools in Ghana, not to mention the number of private tertiary institutions. In fact, one in four of the nation’s schools is a private school. With this statistics it could comfortably be said that at the basic level, more especially in the rural areas, the educational needs of the greater percentage of children is provided by the private schools. Agreeably, private schools in Ghana has over the years been the backbone to the country’s foundation of education.
Over the years, there has been a very healthy relationship between the private and the public sector stakeholders in ensuring that in accordance with the provisions of the constitution of Ghana, every child have access to quality education. Today, private schools help fulfil the Ghanaians ideal of educational pluralism. A sector rich in diversity of schools—some rooted in religious traditions, intensive academic experiences and others that are specialized for specific populations. Whether public or private, these diverse schools constitute the Ghanaian educational expectations and experiences towards a common goal; the education of our country’s children. Together, public and private schools work to ensure an educated citizenry; together they strive to help students reach their potential and contribute to the common good.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, Nelson Mandela, the former South African president said “Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world. It is no gainsaying therefore that quality education breeds absolute development in both the people and nation as a whole. In every human institution, time is likely to erode the initial focus for setting up such institution giving way to complacency and its resultant mediocrity. John Dewey sees education as “not a preparation for life but as life itself” as such, whatever knowledge the child acquires in school should increase his/her ability to exhibit spiritual and emotional as well as academic excellence. In recent times, the occupational demands of our society and the entire world are rapidly changing. There is a common saying that “you can’t use yesterday’s strategies to succeed in tomorrow’s business”. This and many other have necessitated a review in the instructional strategies in how we educate our children to suit current trends and to situate teaching and learning, particularly in the private schools, into global terms .
It is against this background that the Ghana national council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has been formed to be a mother body for Private Schools in Ghana to bring under one umbrella private basic and secondary schools managements, Teachers, Parents, Educational Consultants, GES private schools Coordinators and any individual or cooperate body interested in private schools operations in Ghana.
In the light of current global demands in quality education delivery, GNACOPS, aims at facilitating to make private schools in Ghana part of the global players in quality education delivery by:
• regularly monitoring and advising private schools to deliver a challenging and innovative school and community based training that fosters all the skills and attributes outlined in the profile dimension of the curriculum to equips the learner with the relevant knowledge, skills and attitude for the their educational progression and for life.
• Educating member schools in accordance with clearly stated educational demands in order to help them recruit, develop and retain inspiring teachers, who are fully committed to the pursuance of innovative, values-driven, excellent quality, internationally acceptable education delivery.
• Ensuring the efficacy of an all-inclusive education by preserving and promoting educational pluralism to enable parents have a choice in the schooling of their children.
• Helping member schools to maintain a high academic standards, including the consistent achievement of excellent internal and external examination results, while continuing their commitment to an all-inclusive admissions policy.
• Assisting member schools to secure financial support, aimed sustaining sufficient reserves in withstanding emergencies and economic uncertainties. This will help to maintain their facilities and infrastructure required to support evolving educational and co-curricular needs, and the anticipated growth of the school.
• Identifying and assess on an annual basis the major risks facing the private schools and to ensure that mitigating action, including the preparation of contingency plans, has been taken where appropriate.
• Providing policymakers and other stakeholders with information on matters of interest and concern to private schools to ensure equitable opportunity to appropriate state education programs facilities for private schools.
• Giving legal advice and support as well as general counselling on investment control to management of private schools.
• Ensuring professional development of both teaching and non-teaching staffs by collaborating with the appropriate bodies to run periodic training and workshops.
It will interest you to know that GNACOPS is been run by a full team of seasoned interim National directors who will be sworn in at this congress to assume their substantive roles. These directors are in charge of Monitoring and evaluation, Research and training, data and logistics, corporate relations, guidance and counselling, programmes, legal issues etc. There will also be the regional and district officers who will be in be the liaisons between the national Directors and the grassroots.
In this age of cybernetics and digital information, GNACOPS is looking forward to disseminate information to member schools through its Publishing Outlook (a bi-monthly newsletter), periodic papers, resource documents, news releases and e-mail updates on educational training and public policies. To this end ladies and gentlemen, our web site (www.nacops8.webnode.com) is actively in place and plans are far underway for collaboration with a cable television channels (GEKAD TV) to communicate with the general public about private education as well as the running of educational programs.
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, private schools in Ghana have over the years chalked numerous successes. In terms of academics, private schools stand tall amongst all as regards to Basic Education Certificate Examination results. Many of the students in our secondary and tertiary institutions as well as a lot of well-meaning personalities passed through private school education. In the area of employment, the private schools employ a lot of teaching and no-teaching staff. In this direction, it could be said that most of the unemployed youth, whose situation could have given the government a great burden have secured various jobs. Again, the taxes accrued from the sheer number of private schools is substantial for national development.
Despite these successes, private schools are bedeviled with a quantum of challenges. Major among the challenges faced by private schools are;
Payment of property and operational fees
Non-payment of school fees
low supervision by Education officials especially circuit supervisors
Lack of flexible financial facilities
High attrition rate as a result of the Free Education Policy
These and many more are gradually threatening the running of private schools in Ghana and if measures are not put in place, in the next few years, private school education in the country would get to its lowest ebb as has started in some African countries. In the event of this, there will be a serious pressure on the government since most of the children will find themselves in the public schools. This will mean that government would have to put up enough structures and provide furniture as well to reduce large class sizes which is happening now in almost all the public schools. With this, proper teaching, learning, monitoring and supervision cannot take place in the school. It is my hope that starting from this congress, all stakeholders in the delivery of quality education in Ghana will kick-start into motion a system that will see a perfect public-private collaboration.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, the task ahead in ensuring a sound and holistic human development through education is a big one. To achieve our aim, we must be guided by Richard Riley’s famous saying that: Today’s Teachers are currently preparing learners for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist … in order to solve problems that we don’t even know are problems yet’
In spite of the numerous challenges and the seemingly inadequate available resources, let us re-echo the old Chinese proverb that “it is better to light the candle than to curse the darkness”. Our collective individual strength will garner enough force to help us surmount every obstacle in our quest for an innovative, values-driven, excellent quality and internationally acceptable education delivery for the future generation.
Thank you.
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