Governement to support open learning system – Education Minister

Mr Lee Ocran, Minister of Education on Thursday said Government would support the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) in the commencement of an open learning system at the pre-tertiary level in the country.

He explained that Government’s assistance would be channeled through the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS).

Mr Ocran, who was speaking at the launch of Ghana’s Open School in Accra, said open learning had become a significant alternative mode of delivery at the tertiary level in the country.

He said the Ministry would take up the challenge and opportunity to open up the same level of access at the pre-tertiary.

Mr Ocran noted that the mandate of CENDLOS was to regulate and harmonise open and distance learning activities and lay the foundation for the creation of an open school for Ghana.

He expressed gratitude to COL for supporting the Ministry to ensure that a sound open school system was put in place in future.

Mr Ocran said the system would focus on identifying a specific need in the educational system by increasing access to learning and training for the youth.

Mrs Frances Ferreira, Education Specialist, COL, said open learning would ensure that the curriculum provided to senior school learners was relevant to their needs and various constituents.

She said Governments were investing lots of money in schools yet most school children dropped out of school and indicated that the open school system would use new approaches and technologies.

“Globally, 39 million girls of lower secondary age are currently not enrolled in either primary and secondary, and with this increasing trend, school drop outs would increase to 72 million in 2015”, Mrs Ferreira said.

She said the open leaning system would help Government and the Ghana Educational Service to expand the scope, scale and quality of learning by using new approaches and technology.

Source: GNA