Bishop calls for consultative forum for holistic Education Policy

The Most Reverend Francis A. K. Lodonu, Catholic Bishop of the Ho Diocese, has called for a non-partisan consultative stakeholders' forum towards developing a comprehensive national educational strategy for the country.

He said this non-political forum would eliminate all the bottlenecks that hinder national progress and set a national agenda for the moulding of good character of citizens and for a systematic progression of nation building.

Bishop Lodonu said these in an interview with the Ghana News Agency as a follow up similar suggestions he made recently at a Congregation at the Saint Francis College of Education, Hohoe.

He expressed worry that after 57 years of attaining political independence Ghana lacks a clear-cut comprehensive national policy to serve as the backbone of education but continues to experiment with different programmes.

Bishop Lodonu, therefore, called for the extension of the duration of the Senior High School and the College of Education calendar s by an additional year to offer the students sufficient time to be taught and to learn.

He observed that instructional time for senior secondary students and teacher trainees have become shorter with the demands of extra curricula activities thus limiting the time for academic activities.

He expressed surprise that the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service are unable to present the analysis of results of the combined three-year and four-year WASSCE in 2013.

Most Rev Lodonu said: "If we fix education, all the necessary chips will naturally fall into their respective places…”.

He urged the government to strike a working relationship with the country's research institutions and academia to delve into the specific problems, like ‘Galamsey’ to find solutions to them.

Bishop Lodonu called for special emphasis to be placed on vocational and technical education, saying Japan in the 1980's and beyond made the subjects in that field compulsory for the award of a First Degree.

He called on the government to support private universities financially and to guide the content of their programmes, which should be tailored to national development.

Bishop Lodonu said the Diocese was retraining select teachers in Mathematics, English, Science and Social Studies under the "Human Resource Enhancement Programme", aimed at making teaching and learning easier and friendlier.

He stressed that the partnership between the Church and the State on education should be strengthened for national cohesion, integration and rapid development, as well as for resolving the myriads of social issues confronting the country.