Regional Directors, Heads of Schools to be held accountable for positive student learning – Minister
Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Minister of Education, on Monday expressed concern about the inability of increased enrolment in basic schools over the years to reflect in the quality of education in the country.
“Until Regional Directors and Heads of Schools are held accountable to ensure positive student learning with commensurate results, our efforts at achieving the Millennium Development Goals in future will be in vain”, she stressed.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu said this in an address read on her behalf at a sensitisation workshop for Regional and District Directors of Education as well as Regional Managers of Unit Schools in the Volta and Greater Accra Regions in Accra.
The one-day workshop on the theme: “Continuous Teacher Professional Development-Key to Quality Education,” was aimed at sharing knowledge and ideas on the institutionalisation of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported INSET programme to promote quality education delivery in the districts.
She said primary school Gross Enrolment Rates had increased over the years and currently stood at 96.36 per cent but that the persistent challenge in the poor performances of pupils raised questions as to what the problems were with Ghana’s educational system and how best these problems could be solved.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu underscored the role of qualified, dedicated and reflective teachers as key central players in ensuring quality education and said the government was making efforts to improve the pedagogical skills and knowledge of teachers in order to improve teaching and learning in schools.
“In addition, the government has identified school leadership as a catalyst to bring about the needed change and results that will meet our expectations,” she said.
She commended JICA for the tremendous support to Ghana in education and for supporting the Ghana Education Service (GES) to institutionalise School and Cluster Based INSET in the country, based on the successes chalked in its Science, Technology and Mathematics (STM) project in Basic Schools in some pilot districts of the country.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu explained that the Institutionalisation of INSET was expected to provide a better and well designed continuous professional development for serving teachers instead of the ad-hoc and frequent in-service trainings in the past.
She said it would enable teachers to constantly update and upgrade their content knowledge and pedagogical competences.
The Minister of Education expressed government’s commitment to the INSET programme that had supported the printing of 80,000 INSET source books for districts and schools.
She said funds had been provided in training 3,321 Headteachers in 170 Districts to manage school and cluster based INSETs, while structures such as District INSET Committees had been established and members trained in all the 170 districts by the National INSET Unit (NIU), under the Teacher Education Division to manage and implement the programme.
Mrs Mould-Iddrisu announced that MOE was in the process of ensuring the approval of the Pre-Tertiary Teacher Professional Development and Management (PTPDM) policy which would direct all INSET activities in the country.
However, she indicated that while some districts had effected the implementation of the INSET programme and were doing well, others were lagging behind, and appealed to all Directors and Heads of Schools to embrace the programme as one of the keys to quality education.
Source: GNA