Depoliticise Educational system (Spread)

Minister of Education, Alex Tetteh-Enyo

THE Chairman of the University of Education Governing Council, Okofo Amoako Bondam III, has advised policy makers to depoliticise the country's educational system in order not to jeopardise the future of generations.

"Effective and results-oriented educational reforms involve more than merely changing names and titles of institutions and altering the duration of academic programmes," he stated.

Okofo Bondam was speaking at the maiden Speech and Prize-giving Day of the Salvation Army Senior High School (SHS) at Akim Wenchi in the Kwaebibirem District of the Eastern Region.

The event was on the theme, "The Educational Reform: Challenges and opportunities for a developing school in a rural setting".

Okofo Bondam, who was the quest speaker, decried the frequent changes the educational system had undergone over the past three decades, describing the result as disastrous.

He questioned the rationale behind the current government’s decision to revert the duration of SHS from the current four years to three years even before the first products of the new system graduated.

He observed that for reforms to succeed, schools must be regularly resourced adequately with infrastructure, equipment and teaching aids that would make teaching and learning sound and effective.

"Ignoring the impact and ramifications of population growth on our efforts at socio-economic development, especially in the educational sector, will lead to total chaos, exemplified by the current accommodation problems in our public universities where single occupancy rooms are now occupied by eight students and more," he added.

The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Baba Jamal, said the government was determined to invest a greater chunk of the nation's resources in human resource development, in furtherance of its ‘better Ghana’ agenda.

He urged parents to inculcate in their children "the highest moral discipline, integrity, the right sense of value, duty and responsibility, selflessness and the right attitude".

In his welcoming address, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the school, Prof S.K.B. Asante, said there was no way the country could attain "a middle-income status without first upgrading rural areas socially, economically and environmentally and without allocating considerable resources to the development of education in the rural set up”.

The Headmaster of the school, Mr Sampson Afrifa, appealed for support to stock the school library with books to replace the outdated ones there.

He said the school also required more computers for its Information and Communications Laboratory which currently had only 19 computers for as many as 817 students.

The occasion attracted personalities, including Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, the General Manager in charge of Newspapers at the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL); Mr Ransford Tetteh, the Editor of the Daily Graphic and President of the Ghana Journalists Association; Mr Isaac Edumadze, a former Central Regional Minister; Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, a Senior Fellow at the Legon Centre for International Affairs of the University of Ghana; Osabarima Ameyaw II, who represented the Okyenhene, and Dr Kofi Asare, the MP for Akwatia.

A second-year Agricultural Science student of the school, Miriam Boakye, stole the show by winning five prizes, including those in Chemistry, Animal Husbandry and General Agriculture, much to the admiration of the gathering.

Evans Kwame Addo and Dennis A. Dela, who obtained 5As and 3Bs and 4As and 4Bs, respectively, in last year's West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination were honoured for their excellent performance.