45YEARS OF GES
-Waste of taxes
In the words of a consultant to Ghana's Education Ministry, Dr. Prince Hamidu Armah,
"We know public schools are not doing well so we looked at the potential partnership between the private and public sector, and that is what has informed what we call Ghana Partnership School programme...It's anticipated that during the process, our public schools will learn from the experiences in the private sector and that is the principle behind the policy.
Under the programme, there will be effective supervision of teachers in public schools. If the head teachers are not happy with the behaviour of a teacher, they could ask the Ghana Education Service to bring to them a new teacher. So here, we are looking at how the private schools have performed by ensuring accountability. "
These statements come ahead of the policy which the ministry is due to introduce in September this year by piloting it in over 100 state-controlled basic schools in four regions viz Ashanti, Central, Greater Accra and Northern for the next three years.
The policy which the ministry indicates is not privatisation of schools but leveraging the expertise of the private sector is expected to improve the performance of public basic schools in the country by changing the operational system to improve management of schools for better results.
And that it will not have any financial burden on parents.
This move, however, has been opposed by some teacher unions who say, contrary to the ministry's assurance, is a recipe for privatisation and eventual commercialisation of Ghana's education sector.
The latest to hit hard at the government is the Ghanaian National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) which is mandated to internally regulate over 22,000 private schools across the country.
GNACOPS intimates that for the nation to come this far in terms of poor standards is a reflection of the education service's failure to deliver on it's core mandate of quality education over the past 45years.
"GES must be dissolved as soon as possible and their offices and funds given to those who have succeeded in making the private sector worth emulating by the public sector, " National Executive Director (NED) of GNACOPS, Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah, strongly stated in an interview with founding editor of Learning Matters, Osei Kuffour (Editor OK) on Wednesday, March 13, ahead of a non state actors stakeholder meeting by close of March.
GNACOPS call has been backed by several expert stakeholders in the country's educational sector.
In a related development, the owner of Joy Standard Schools, a leading name in the private sector for 27years in Ashanti, Stephen Donkor, has kicked against the publishing of the West African Examination Council (WAEC)'s results rankings.
Mr. Donkor says the practice, contrary to enhancing learning by schools, especially those who don't live up to exam expectations, trigger to the use of various ways and means by some schools and parents to buy questions for their candidates.
The development, he added, does not reveal the true abilities of candidates hence they perform abysmally when they progress to other levels where such bad practices are not countenanced.
Story: Osei Kuffour
Fb: Osei Kuffour OK
E: okeditor5@gmail.com
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