Ministry drafts private schools regulation bill

THE Ministry of Education (MoE) and its stakeholders have drafted the Private Schools Regulation Bill which will ensure that private schools operate within the confines of the law and in the interest of the Ghanaian child.

Additionally, the MoE, in consultation with the Ghana Education Service (GES) Council has set up the Private Schools Unit at the GES Headquarters to oversee and regulate the conduct of affairs of these schools.

Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Minister of Education, announced this at the first speech and prize-giving day of Queensland International School at Tema at the weekend.

In all, 98 pupils, comprising 50 boys and 48 girls, graduated from primary six to the Junior Secondary School.

Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi explained that all these measures are geared towards promoting a joint partnership between the government and private schools to enhance quality and affordable education for all Ghanaian children of school-going age.

?It has become abundantly clear that due to competing fiscal demands from various sectors of the economy, especially the provision of development projects for the people, government alone cannot meet the benchmarks that will secure for our children, the much touted quality education that we all seek to achieve,? he said.

Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi continued, ?private participation in the education sector must be seen as complementing government efforts, for which all of us ought to be grateful.?

He, however, lamented that ?one thorny issue that characterises the operation of private schools is the sky rocketing fees charged by them?.

Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi noted that as much as they are registered as limited liability companies, ?we must take care that our actions do not lead us into creating a class of society in which only the rich can access quality education for their children?.

He, therefore, directed school proprietors to strictly adhere to the fees approved for them by government.

He said given the huge investment that goes into education, it is disappointing that some schools still record zero per cent at examinations. The government, he said, is committed to reversing this appalling trend and thereby achieve quality education in all schools.

He said it is in the light of this that the Presidential Education Review Committee was set up to submit recommendations that will help re-package the educational system.

The minister commended parents, teachers, candidates and the general public for their support during the resit of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) which was cancelled due to massive leakage.

He attributed the examination leakage to the moral decadence that has engulfed the society and urged child educators to exercise the highest circumspection in their daily conduct and set good examples for pupils to emulate, since ?children choose their teachers as their role models?.

Prof Ameyaw-Akumfi congratulated the Board of Directors and the Parent/ Teacher Association (PTA) of Queensland, known as the ?Royal Family?, for the success achieved so far. Dr I.K. Adjei-Maafo, Executive Director of the school, urged parents to spend quality time with their kids and not expose them to violent and obscene movies. He said, ?this uncensored and unedited films and advertisements acutely deepen the chronic indiscipline which has now permeated the entire fabric of our social and cultural set up.?

Dr Adjei-Maafo, who was also a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, urged all pupils to spend more time with their books and avoid the television screens. ?Develop the passion for reading books, which can deepen and widen your intellectual base, imagination and horizon,? he added.

Present at the ceremony were the Minister of Finance, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, former Minister of Finance, Mr Kwame Peprah, Former Deputy Minister of Energy, Mr Simon Abingya, Rev Dr Mensah Otabil, Chancellor of the Central University College and Very Rev. Dr Emmanuel Asante, President of Trinity Theological Seminary, Legon.