Education Ministry strategize to achieve MDG

Cape Coast, Sept 28, GNA - The Ministry of Education's strategies adopted to help address challenges that could impede the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals of Education within the stipulated period has yielded positive results, the Minister of Education, Mr. Alex Tettey-Enyo has said.

He said this in a speech read on his behalf at the opening of a two-day dissemination conference on the theme "redirecting policy for achieving education for all in Africa: the context of access, quality and outcomes" at the University of Cape Coast on Monday. The two-day conference organized by the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) of the UCC and is being attended by educationists and researchers from Ghana, England, US, Tanzania and Ghana.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said the school feeding programme, the provision of free textbooks and uniforms, food rations for girls and the closing of the gender parity gap were all interventions put in place to ensure expanding access and ensure quality and accessible education for all. He said the government acknowledges that access to quality education is crucial for accelerating national strategies towards achieving the Education for All Goals in terms of eradicating illiteracy by 2015.

Mr Tettey-Enyo said it was in this direction that the construction of over 300 basic schools and 500 six-unit classroom blocks for Senior High and Technical schools had started in earnest. The Ministry has also established Inspectorate Board to strengthen supervision of teaching and learning facilities at the basic and the high school levels.

Mr. Tettey-Enyo expressed gratitude to the Department for International Fund for Development (DFID) for providing funding which enabled the foreign collaborators in the research consortia from the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol, Bath and Dares Salem to undertake researches to improve further the delivery of quality education in the country and beyond.

The Vice Chancellor of UCC Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang noted that the forum would offer participants a two pronged opportunity for policy dialogue.

She expressed the hope that deliberations among the researchers and participants would focus on applicable policy strategies that Africa and Ghana required accelerating their path towards the attainment of Millennium Development Goal targets.

Dr. Dominic Kuupole, the Pro-Vice Chancellor of UCC who chaired the function, said the country needed a problem solving education to propel its development agenda forward.

He expressed the hope that the government of the participating countries would take on board the decisions and outcomes of the conference to develop policies that would help achieve the MDGs and also to ensure quality education for all.