Education experts review performance of sector
Experts in the education sector held a meeting in Accra yesterday to review the performance of the country’s education system over the past 15 years and chart the way forward for the next 15 years.
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The participants, including heads of tertiary, secondary and basic schools, education supervisors, representatives of civil society organisations and development partners, were expected to discuss the various education programmes and make recommendations on how to improve quality and enrolment in schools.
Held on the theme:”Education 2030: Ensuring inclusive, equitable quality education and life-long learning opportunities for all”, the review meeting was also used to launch of the 2015 National Level Status of the Global Monitoring Report.
In her speech, the Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, who opened the meeting, said the education sector had made marked improvements over the past decade and half.
For instance, she said, over the period, the number of Ghanaian children at the kindergarten level increased from 700,000 in 2001 to 2,100,000 in 2015.
At the primary level, enrolment increased from 2,500,000 to over 4,300,000, indication of improvements in access for pupils of primary school statutory age of six to 11-year olds.
The junior secondary education enrolment trends improved from 860,000 to about 1,600,000 during the same period.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said enrolment in senior high schools (SHSs) increased from 223,597 to 804,974 with a gender parity index in the SHSs registering 91 females for every 100 males.
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“The technical vocational education and training institutions recorded a total enrolment of over 45,000.
“At the tertiary level, enrolment in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education over the period increased from about 223,597 to 285,506,” she said.
Prospects for 2016 and beyond
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the government, with the support of development partners, was engaged in the expansion of the complementary basic education programme to cover additional 80,000 out of schoolchildren, to gradually reduce their number.
She said the ministry would be training more than 51,000 teachers in pre-service training by promoting a balance between theory and practice.
The ministry would also provide additional teaching and learning materials through the supply of supplementary readers for pupils in primary schools to supplement government support.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the government would see to the implementation of the progressively free SHS education policy starting with the day students in the public SHS.
Besides, the policy for the construction of 200 community-based SHS would go ahead while 125 low-performing SHSs would have their facilities improved.
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang said the government would provide additional scholarships for more than 10,000 students from low-income families and from low-performing SHSs over the next five years.
Challenge
Prof. Opoku-Agyemang tasked stakeholders in the sector to strengthen policies, plans, legislation and systems, including private sector participation in education at all levels.
She stressed the need for measures to be put in place to improve quality, inclusion and gender equality in educational institutions.
Prof. Yaw Ankomah of the University of Cape Coast, who also spoke at the meeting, mentioned the lack of commitment on the part of players in the education sector in executing plans and taking bold decisions, as one of the challenges in the sector.
He said inadequate infrastructure at the schools was a challenge to the delivery of quality education, and stressed the need for the improvement of infrastructure.
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