Perform active roles in education delivery - Minister tells MMDCEs

The Ministry of Education has asked metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to perform active roles in education delivery.

A Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Alex Kyeremeh, who made this known in an interview with the Daily Graphic, noted that the Ghana Education Service Act 506 gave the MMDCEs a lot of functions to perform in that respect.

The deputy minister in charge of pre-tertiary education said most of the MMDCEs were not aware of their role in education because they were either new or not exercising their functions, and added that this week, the ministry would meet those in the northern and southern sectors to get them involved in solving educational problems.

Unapproved fees

He said the ministry would step up efforts to check the collection of unapproved fees with the active involvement of the MMDCEs, and stressed among others that they should also check teacher absenteeism, improve infrastructure and address complaints of parents and guardians.

"For instance, if you have only one senior high school in your district, you don't need somebody in Accra to go to the district and check whether the school is charging approved or unapproved fees or not. The onus lies on you the DCE to go and check and then instil discipline in the school," he said.

According to Mr Kyeremeh, the District Education Oversight Committee, chaired by the DCE, had a role to play in education delivery, so that they should not be mere observers.

"We want to bring a large number of people on board to help address  the problems in education," he said.

EOCO investigation

On unapproved fees, he said the ministry was also collaborating with the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) because some of the illegal fees bordered on criminality.

"We are also in league with EOCO to investigate some of these things because some of them are fraudulent.

"Some issues bordering on unapproved fees are criminal because the heads take the money and do not even supply the items. Some also cannot account for the money they collect," he said.