Mr Chairman, Honourable deputy Minister of education, The Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) the Director, Pre-Tertiary Directorate, the Executive Secretary, NaCCA, National Executives of the various Private Schools organisations, Facilitators, Participants, Friends from the media, invited guest, ladies and gentlemen
The contributions of the private school system in Ghana from time immemorial is highly appreciable and has helped to sustain and improve upon quality education delivery. It is interesting to note that despite all these achievements, there seems to be an unintentional disjoint with the sector ministry in terms of inclusion in vital national activities such as the about to commence training of national trainers for the new curriculum.
Today’s event, and subsequently that of this whole week, marks an indelible milestone in the education delivery in Ghana. Today, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Educational Service and National Council for Curriculum and Assessment Agency, we will kickstart the training of 130 national trainers who will in turn train private school teachers in 98 centres nationwide. Never in the history of private school education in Ghana, has there been such a close relationship with the mother ministry as we are witnessing in recent times.
I recall the promise made by his excellency, president Nana Akufo-Addo, when he invited the national directors of GNACOPS to his office in November last year. He assured the private schools of his government’s willingness to further deepen our mutual relationship us in decision-making on all policies on education in Ghana. In furtherance of this, the education ministry, through the Hon. Minister, the deputy minister in charge of general education, Hon. Yaw Adutwum and the director of the Pre-tertiary division, Mrs Catherine Appiah Pinkrah have been at the forefront to see to the revamping of the private schools in Ghana to make it an able partner with in the delivery of quality education in Ghana. This is a task they are executing to the letter and wish to request our participants to show appreciation through a loud applause! Hon., and madam Appiah-Pinkrah, private schools say Ayekoo!
I will also like to commend the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr. Armah, who despite his neck-deep schedules, made sure that this training programme becomes a success.
This training programme, the first of its kind for the private schools in Ghana, comes at a time when the policy change in education in Ghana is calling for teachers who are well vested not just in the subject they teach but also how to implement the curriculum to the benefit of the Ghanaian child. Over the years, we have witnessed the situation where individuals parading themselves as educational consultants and so on, have trooped in to train teachers in the private schools to their own whims. To ensure uniformity and standards, henceforth any agency or consultancy who wish to train teachers in the private schools, especially on this Standard-Based Curriculum, have to seek approval from the appropriate quarters. I will plead with the Hon. Deputy Minister and the Director General of education to make their regional and district directors aware of this new development.
I will like to appreciate the support given to us by the Ministry of Education and its associate agencies. So far, the ministry and NaCCA have supported us with to the tune of 25,000 Ghana Cedis. The Pre-tertiary directorate has also given quite a number of teaching and learning materials. An entire team from the Pre-Tertiary Directorate is also here to support the training. But like the legendary Oliver Twist, we are soliciting more of your assistance in any other form, including the provision of facilities of the public schools to be used as our training centres during the cascading training.
For the training to become a continuum and beneficial to every child in the private school space; a monitoring team, with members drawn from the Pre-Tertiary directorate, NaCCA, the private schools associations, the National Teaching Council (NTC) and the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) will be constituted. Their report will be a guide for mop-up and subsequent training schedules for the private schools.
Moving forward, although we are here to commence the training of the teachers in the private schools; one of our big challenges has been the ability to retain our teachers. This has further been compounded by the new teaching standards. It is a fact that a good number of the teachers in the private schools have no yet had the required qualification to sit for the licensure exams. To alleviate this, there has been the introduction of a Volunteer scheme, where interested unlicensed teachers in the private schools will be given the required training towards the award of an equivalent degree in education and subsequently the opportunity to write the licensure examination. Talks are ongoing with the National Teaching Council in this direction. There is also in progress the development and generation of a database of the entire number of teachers in the private schools across the country for onward submission to the National Teaching Council.
Mr Chairman, this program would not have come off without the great effort put forward by the various associations, member colleagues and corporate partners. I’d hereby like to express our appreciation to all national and sub-national executives of Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), the Foundation for Education, Research & Devt (FERD) and my own association, the Ghana National Council for Private Schools. We also say a BIG thank you to BISTA Solutions Ltd., for offering to develop or online forms and database and Ruach Education Consultant for Project Management Services…
Last but not the least; I will urge all the participants to open up and learn very well so they can also pass on this unique knowledge being acquired to their colleague teachers to maintain an unbroken chain. You should note that the future of the Ghanaian child and for that matter the nation lies within this standard-based curriculum and how you teach it for onward implementation is most crucial in our march forward as a nation.
I will like to end by re-echoing the Director General’s slogan for the training which is:
WHEN I GET IT RIGHT, WE ALL GET IT RIGHT
Thank you.
I recall the promise made by his excellency, president Nana Akufo-Addo, when he invited the national directors of GNACOPS to his office in November last year. He assured the private schools of his government’s willingness to further deepen our mutual relationship us in decision-making on all policies on education in Ghana. In furtherance of this, the education ministry, through the Hon. Minister, the deputy minister in charge of general education, Hon. Yaw Adutwum and the director of the Pre-tertiary division, Mrs Catherine Appiah Pinkrah have been at the forefront to see to the revamping of the private schools in Ghana to make it an able partner with in the delivery of quality education in Ghana. This is a task they are executing to the letter and wish to request our participants to show appreciation through a loud applause! Hon., and madam Appiah-Pinkrah, private schools say Ayekoo!
I will also like to commend the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Dr. Armah, who despite his neck-deep schedules, made sure that this training programme becomes a success.
This training programme, the first of its kind for the private schools in Ghana, comes at a time when the policy change in education in Ghana is calling for teachers who are well vested not just in the subject they teach but also how to implement the curriculum to the benefit of the Ghanaian child. Over the years, we have witnessed the situation where individuals parading themselves as educational consultants and so on, have trooped in to train teachers in the private schools to their own whims. To ensure uniformity and standards, henceforth any agency or consultancy who wish to train teachers in the private schools, especially on this Standard-Based Curriculum, have to seek approval from the appropriate quarters. I will plead with the Hon. Deputy Minister and the Director General of education to make their regional and district directors aware of this new development.
I will like to appreciate the support given to us by the Ministry of Education and its associate agencies. So far, the ministry and NaCCA have supported us with to the tune of 25,000 Ghana Cedis. The Pre-tertiary directorate has also given quite a number of teaching and learning materials. An entire team from the Pre-Tertiary Directorate is also here to support the training. But like the legendary Oliver Twist, we are soliciting more of your assistance in any other form, including the provision of facilities of the public schools to be used as our training centres during the cascading training.
For the training to become a continuum and beneficial to every child in the private school space; a monitoring team, with members drawn from the Pre-Tertiary directorate, NaCCA, the private schools associations, the National Teaching Council (NTC) and the National Inspectorate Board (NIB) will be constituted. Their report will be a guide for mop-up and subsequent training schedules for the private schools.
Moving forward, although we are here to commence the training of the teachers in the private schools; one of our big challenges has been the ability to retain our teachers. This has further been compounded by the new teaching standards. It is a fact that a good number of the teachers in the private schools have no yet had the required qualification to sit for the licensure exams. To alleviate this, there has been the introduction of a Volunteer scheme, where interested unlicensed teachers in the private schools will be given the required training towards the award of an equivalent degree in education and subsequently the opportunity to write the licensure examination. Talks are ongoing with the National Teaching Council in this direction. There is also in progress the development and generation of a database of the entire number of teachers in the private schools across the country for onward submission to the National Teaching Council.
Mr Chairman, this program would not have come off without the great effort put forward by the various associations, member colleagues and corporate partners. I’d hereby like to express our appreciation to all national and sub-national executives of Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), the Foundation for Education, Research & Devt (FERD) and my own association, the Ghana National Council for Private Schools. We also say a BIG thank you to BISTA Solutions Ltd., for offering to develop or online forms and database and Ruach Education Consultant for Project Management Services…
Last but not the least; I will urge all the participants to open up and learn very well so they can also pass on this unique knowledge being acquired to their colleague teachers to maintain an unbroken chain. You should note that the future of the Ghanaian child and for that matter the nation lies within this standard-based curriculum and how you teach it for onward implementation is most crucial in our march forward as a nation.
I will like to end by re-echoing the Director General’s slogan for the training which is:
WHEN I GET IT RIGHT, WE ALL GET IT RIGHT
Thank you.
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