This was a call made at the 2011 GNAPS celebration at Takoradi.

The Deputy Regional GNAPS Chairman, Mr Thomas Essien, said there should be a holistic restructuring of facilities in terms of infrastructure, ethics and even curricula to meet both local and international standards.

Mr Essien said there was also the need for up and coming private schools to follow standards and regulations saying, “it is inappropriate for anybody to stand up and set-up a school in any corner and structure”.

He pleaded with government to make available textbooks and other teaching materials to enable them to move in line with other public schools.

Nana Kobina Nketsiah V, Omanhene of Essikado Traditional Area, lauded the contribution of private schools in training the human resource base of the country.

He however decried the content of Ghanaian education system which according to him has been westernized.

According to him, education must bring out the best in a person and not to indoctrinate adding, “I challenge you as private schools to churn out people who can command change”.

Source: GNA

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The occasion also marked the launching of  the 2011 GNAPS Week Celebration which begins from February 21 to 25, 2011 on the theme: “Private Schools in an Emerging Middle Income Economy”.

The President of GNAPS, Mr Godwin Sowah, said “for those of us who are in the business of producing a citizenry that is sufficiently and relevantly educated to cope with the general but crucial challenges of a middle income economy, a huge responsibility befalls us”.

He said the Ghana Education Service (GES), the German Technical Coorporation and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning were working on a programme to include financial literacy in the senior high school curriculum.

“This is one example of how we need to find appropriate answers to the challenges attendant to life in a middle income economy,” he said.

Mr Sowah commended the National Road safety Commission and the GES for incorporating road safety in the basic school curriculum and coming out with  textbooks and teachers guidelines to that effect.

“I call upon private schools to take the teaching of road safety seriously since children of basic school age are vulnerable to fall victims to road accidents. Private schools should endeavour to teach both theory and practicals or demonstrations to achieve maximum results,” he said.

He said the GNAPS would soon develop a handbook for the teaching of moral values in schools, and urged schools to use the book to fight crime.

The Central Regional Minister, Mrs Ama Benyinwa-Doe, in an address read on her behalf, said the government alone could not meet the demands of the education sector  and as such, it recognised and appreciated the roles the private sector was playing.

“One area in which I feel GNAPS can further help in increasing access to education in the country is by looking at your fees again and trying to make them affordable to the ordinary Ghanaian,” she advised.

She commended teachers for the good work they were doing and urged “parents to support the efforts of teachers”.

Mrs Benyinwa-Doe said the nation could not afford to toy with education as it was the bedrock of the country’s development.

The acting Director General of the GES, Benedicta Naana Biney, in an address read on her behalf noted that the GNAPS headquarters which is about to be constructed would go a long way to facilitate the operation of private schools.

The Mankralo of the Awutu Traditional Council, Nai Kwao Kwrabi Clottey III, who cut the sod for the GNAPS headquarters, called on the association to ensure that construction works began immediately since the prices of building materials were increasing day by day.

Source: Graphic Ghana

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In the U-12 matches, Fiapre Eleven Lions maintained their strength in their second week match when they beat Young Goldfields 2-0 at Fiapre. They beat Sunyani Prison area Alakoso 2-0 in the maiden fixtures of the competition.

New Town Young Wise narrowly beat visiting Kotokrom Super Stars 3-2 at the local Methodist Junior High School Park, while Penkwase Panest Academy who bowed 0-2 to Kotokrom Super Stars a week ago managed a goalless draw at home against visiting Young Kotoko.

Celtic F/C after losing 1-2 to Young Olympics in their first match made amendments in the second week pairings by beating Penkwase Liverpool 2-1 at Penkwase.

Liberty who whipped Liverpool 4-0 last week emerged victorious with a 2-0 demolition of Young Olympics.

In the Under-15 division, Eleven Lions after drawing 0-0 with Alakoso last week beat Young Goldfields 2-0 at home while Young Hearts pipped F/C 1-0 with Panest Academy and Young Kotoko sharing honours in their goalless encounter.

Celtic who drew 1-1 with Young Olympics last week gave a good account of themselves with another away encounter by thumping Liverpool 3-1 while Liberty drew 0-0 with Young Olympics.

The match between Young Wise and Kotokrom Super Stars was called off due to a technical hitch.

Sunyani, (B/A) Sept. 13, GNA

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By this directive all continuing students of Senior High Schools are to report for school on September 27, 2010.

Initially, boarding students were supposed to report for school on September 11 with the day students reporting on September 13.

The reason for rescheduling the opening date is due to the fact that most of the Senior High Schools would be used to train facilitators for the upcoming 2010 Census, the President of Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools, Mr Samuel Ofori-Adjei, confirmed to the Daily Graphic.

He gave an assurance that the 40 weeks for the academic year would be covered, adding that the two weeks that would be missed would be catered for in the second and third terms.

“There would not be any loss in contact time,” he emphasised.
At a press conference on the 2010 computerised placements, the GES said efforts were being made to ensure that first-year students were in school for the commencement of the 2010/2011 academic year by October 15, 2010.

The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tetteh-Enyo, has assured private basic and second cycle schools of the government’s support through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

Additionally, they would benefit from the supply of textbooks and other teaching materials to enhance their academic operations.

The Minister said this at the opening of a three-day annual meeting of the Conference of Heads of Private Second-Cycle Schools, (CHOPSS) in an address read for him, in Kumasi.

“Delivery of Quality Pre-University Education in Ghana – The role of Private Schools,” is the theme. It is being attended by more than 100 delegates from across the country.

Mr Tetteh-Enyo said the government recognized the crucial role the private schools are playing to complement the government’s efforts at promoting quality education.

“It is on account of this that they would be given every necessary push and encouragement for optimal performance,” he stated.

He spoke about the need to make the teaching and learning environment attractive, promote efficient use of human resources and to ensure the relevance of the curriculum to social life.

Mr Tetteh-Enyo, therefore, counseled the private schools to engage qualified personnel as teachers.

GNA/PF

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In the Ashanti region alone, a total of 32,724 candidates have registered for the examination.

Speaking to Radio Ghana in Kumasi, the Controller of the West African Examinations Council of the West African Examinations Council, Edgah Fiadjeh said the figure is made up of 17,636 male candidates and 15,088 females who are writing at 39 approved centres in the region.

According to him, the total registered candidates include those from 10 private schools.

Mr. Fiagbeh said even though the examination began some weeks ago with practicals, the theory or written examination began yesterday with General Knowledge in Arts.

The entire examination is scheduled to end on the 11th of next month.

Source: GBC NEWS

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Panest Ghana NGO operates and supports schools, sports clubs and is an advocate in the youth development sector.

Most Reverend Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Catholic Archbishop of Kumasi, Emeritus, has appealed to the government to give some push to the private educational institutions to enhance their operations.

He said it would not be out of place to provide them with funds and logistical support, given the critical role they are playing in the development of the country’s education.

Archbishop Sarpong said since the parents of children attending the private schools are also taxpayers, it was unfair to deny the schools of any form of funding by the state.

He was addressing the second biennial conference of the Ghana National Association of Vocational and Technical Institutes (GNAVTI) in Kumasi.

“Meeting the financial and human resources dimension of competence-based training implementation: How do private VTI providers overcome the challenges” was the theme.

Archbishop Sarpong praised the private sector for its enormous contribution to national development.

The Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Mr Joseph Kwabena Onyinah, said there was the need to intensify efforts at promoting science, technical and vocational education.

He said it was important to ensure substantial increase in the number of students pursuing science and technology based programmes.

It was for this reason that much emphasis in now being placed on the teaching and learning of science and mathematics in schools, he added.

Kumasi, Aug. 18, GNA

This, she said, would help equip the children with the needed societal values and prevent them from indulging in acts that would impact negatively on the efforts of stakeholders to provide quality education.

Madam Biney made the call in a speech, read on her behalf, at the graduation and end-of-year anniversary of United Family Academy, in Accra.

It was under the theme: “Developing Future Leaders Through Quality Education.”

She noted that most parents usually spend longer hours on business issues and have transferred their parental responsibilities to teachers in schools, adding that, “parents seem not to care about what their children do at school or home.”

“We put our children in schools, pay their fees but we do not support them, this is the time that we need to listen, understand and inculcate in them the virtues of empathy, honesty, dignity and appreciation,” she stated.

Madam Biney pointed out that children build their relationships based on the experiences acquired from school and friends in communities, adding that, parents can only get to know and check their children when they spend quality time with them.

She urged authorities of educational institutions and the communities to play complementary roles to ensure that children are adequately informed about societal values and obtain the best form of education in the country.

Mr Paul Kweku Mensah, head teacher of the school, appealed to the government to help in the supply of teaching and learning materials for private schools since government approved textbooks were not available on the market.

He suggested that private schools be included in the educational reforms and training programmes for teachers to help in equal delivery of quality education.

GNA

He said individuals should be supported to invest in education, and praised Mr Daniel Yirenkyi, Proprietor of the Victory Preparatory School for establishing the school at Ahodjo Ketewah, a suburb of Nsawam, in the Eastern Region.

Mrs Nanor made the commendation during the open-day of the school on Thursday.

She appealed to citizens, both home and abroad, to contribute towards the development of the community, saying that the people lack educational facilities, good drinking water and health centres.

Mrs Nanor advised parents against spending extravagantly on costumes and rather invest in the education of their children.

Mrs Nanor asked school children to desist from absenteeism, watching television, attending weddings, wake-keepings and other social events and rather spend their time on their books to enable them to pass their examinations.

Mr Yirenkyi said established the school as his contribution towards providing education to the doorsteps of the people and to also assist school pupils who have attained the age of school-going but have to travel long distances to attend school.

He said the school started with only two girls and two boys in 2005 under temporal shield but now the school population is over 120 children and expressed the hope that by 2015 the school would have Junior High School.

He called on his compatriots to also invest in education in their communities to help uplift teaching and learning in rural areas.

Mr Yirenkyi appealed to the Akuapem South Municipal Assembly, non-governmental organizations, philanthropists and stakeholders in education to come to the support of the school.

Source: GNA

The minister, who was answering a question in Parliament concerning the measures his ministry was putting in place to ensure the adequate supply of qualified teachers for schools in the rural areas in particular, noted that the problem facing the ministry was that the number of teacher vacancies declared every year far outstripped the number of newly trained teachers who passed out from the colleges of education and teachers returning from further studies.

If we understand the minister well, what he said means that the problem has been recurring over the years; maybe starting with just a few vacancies until it has snowballed into a very serious national predicament which must be tackled with great tact and zeal.

The questions to be asked are: Why did we allow the problem to grow out of hand? What has been done over the years to get it resolved? How do we, as a nation, resolve this matter once and for all so that the problem of classrooms without teachers would be a thing of the past?

The DAILY GRAPHIC is worried about the implications of having pupils in classrooms without teachers to attend to them. Many a wayward pupil can easily take advantage of the situation to get themselves into trouble, in addition to influencing others negatively.

Government policies over the years, especially the capitation grant, the school feeding programme, the supply of exercise books to pupils and the distribution of free school uniforms to pupils in deprived communities, are all geared towards motivating children to go to school and remain there until they finish.

To all intents and purposes, that objective has been achieved, with statistics indicating that school enrolment has gone up over the past few years.
Thus it is ironic that at a time when the state is stretching every sinew to get children in school, there seems to be no teachers in the classrooms to teach them.
We believe strongly that one of the causes of this state of affairs is the high attrition rate in the educational sector, which in turn can be traced to the rather poor conditions of service for our teachers.
In short, one cannot find any other sector where the workers quit in droves to join other sectors than the educational sector.

The DAILY GRAPHIC suggests that as a first step towards resolving the matter, efforts must be made to retain those teachers who are at post, so that they don’t leave to create more vacancies.

It is our hope that the Single Spine Pay Policy which was recently introduced will satisfy teachers and keep them in the classrooms. If it succeeds in doing this, the policy will surely entice those who left the service to return and motivate others to join the service. The introduction of a professional allowance for teachers should also help to stem the high attrition rate in the classrooms.

We also revisit the suggestion that was made some time ago that metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies should be able to sponsor students to the colleges of education, after which they can bond the trainee teachers to serve in schools in communities where they are needed.

By extension, even traditional authorities, individuals and corporate entities such as mining companies could get on board this sponsorship train, all in the effort to get teachers in our classrooms all over the country.

Education is the bedrock of any meaningful development and the teacher is the centerpiece of that rock. Therefore, we must do everything within our means to get them into our classrooms and, more importantly, retain them there for as long as possible.

source: Graphic Editorial