School inspections not for witch-hunt

The National Inspectorate Board (NIB) is not out to witch-hunt schools but to help them deliver better and quality education.

The Deputy Education Minister in charge of Pre-tertiary, Dr Osei Yaw Adutwum, who gave the advice, explained that the role of the NIB was crucial because it involved the health and safety of the pupils and students in the school.

Stakeholders

He was speaking on the topic: “Registration of private schools" at a day's stakeholder engagement forum in Accra.

The stakeholder’s engagement was designed to explain the NIB’s new evidence-based inspection approach, the types of reporting and train stakeholders on the school level report so they understand how to use the recommendations to improve learning outcomes in their schools, districts etc.

The forum, which brought together owners of private schools, heads of pre-tertiary schools, heads of educational tertiary institutions, players in the education sector, principals of colleges of education and various teacher unions, was organised by the NIB.

Making schools better

Dr Adutwum explained that when the NIB officials visited their schools, it was to make them better schools, "it is not to hurt you. It is not that they come around to boss over you."

He commended the acting Executive Secretary, Dr Haggar Hilda Ampadu, for championing innovation at the NIB, explaining that she could be meticulous in her approach but it was all to ensure that their schools were of better standards.

Dr Adutwum commended private schools for their great work, adding that even though they might have been doing so well, there were some gaps that they needed to fill.

Inspection

He told the private school owners that if they allowed themselves to be inspected and the few gaps and challenges filled and addressed, they would be the best private schools.

"NIB is not coming to look out for your mistakes; NIB is coming to look for opportunities for you so that your school will be better off.

"So if you run a private school, you need a third eye, and that third eye is the new NIB. The NIB that will help you craft an action plan for improvement so that your school can be better," he told the private school owners.

Work of NIB

The Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, said the NIB was set up to improve quality of learning outcomes.

He announced that henceforth, the findings report with key findings and recommendations from the NIB would be shared with stakeholders such as regional ministers, Members of Parliament, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, among others.

Dr Opoku Prempeh further announced that the NIB had taken over the registration of pre-tertiary institutions from the Ghana Education Service.
He said it was as a result of the NIB’s renewed mandate that the ministry felt the need to transform the board into an authority.

Dr Opoku Prempeh implored the participants to provide useful and concrete feedback to ensure a better system of assessment for better and quality outcomes.

Purpose for inspection

For her part, Dr Ampadu explained that school inspections served varied purposes such as the promotion of educational improvement.

She said the NIB had moved from randomly selecting 50 schools to inspect in a year to now using a statistical sampling approach to select schools.

The acting Board Chairman of the NIB, Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, who chaired the forum, said there was a general concern about the quality of education in the country and was hopeful that the soon to be passed law of the new NIB would enable the NIB to clamp down on erring schools.