Chief Director calls for educational reform

Koforidua, Feb. 11, GNA - The Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Mr. Ato Essuman, has called for an educational reform that would enable the nation to keep pace with drastic economic changes in the world.

He said the current educational system that graduates large students who were unable to proceed to higher institutions or with sufficient skills to enter the job market was a threat to the manpower development of the country.

Mr. Essuman, who is also a Member of the Council of State, said this at the 15th Anniversary and Third Speech and Prize-Giving Day of the Koforidua Secondary School on Saturday.

He said the current educational system that ends at 15 years of age for over 60 per cent of the school going population was clearly failing the citizens of the country.

"Our education should lead us to the acquisition of knowledge which will be able to transform us to offer service to mankind, education that results in the development of responsible, disciplined and a national oriented citizenry"

Mr. Essuman said the government was taking measures prior to the reforms to address the concerns of teachers by making provisions to upgrade teacher education and provide distance-training courses for non-professional teachers.

He said a national teaching council to regulate the teaching profession and to give a powerful voice to teachers is about to be established.

The Executive Director of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Dr Kwame Amoako-Tuffuor, said the programme, apart from its basic function of eradicating malnutrition in schoolchildren, was also improving the economic well being of farmers.

He said all foods prepared for the selected schools used locally produced food items to sustain the market of the local farmers. He said for instance, farmers in the northern parts of the country had been engaged to produce soyabeans on a large scale to be used for feeding the children.

The Headmistress of the school, Mrs. Matilda Appiah, said the school that existed as Nsukwao L.A Primary became a senior secondary school in 1991 as a result of the 1987 educational reform in which many JSS were upgraded to SSS.

She said the school, despite it short existence, had proved its worth in many fields of academic disciplines in the region by scoring 99 percent pass in the 2006 SSCE and becoming second in STME quiz for schools in the Eastern Region.

Mrs Appiah said parents in the municipality hitherto shunned the idea of enrolling their wards in the school due to negative perception that it was a community school and hinted renaming the school to make it distinct and appealing in the municipality.

She appealed for more classrooms and more infrastructures since the current infrastructure of the school was not commensurate with the over 1,000-student population.

Mrs Appiah expressed gratitude to the New Juaben Traditional Council for its support for the development of the school over the years.

The Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Oti Boateng, said the school feeding programme was appropriate in improving the human resource base of the country.

Thirty-six students and 4 members of staff who had distinguished themselves in the school for the past years were rewarded.