The Executive Secretary of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST -Ghana) Peter Partey Anti has said that the financing of Ghana’s education is going through severe challenges.
This situation, he said, has forced headmasters and headmistresses to adopt innovative ways to sustain the education of the children.
Unfortunately, he said, managers of the education are failing to appreciate the efforts of the heads of the schools.
Speaking on News 360 on TV3 Thursday, July 20 while reacting to the interdiction of the headmistress of the West Africa Senior High School, Dr Mrs Shine Agatha Ofori, Mr Partey Anti said” The financing of our education is going through serious challenges.
“Unfortunately, a lot of us who have raised these issues have not gotten the needed support from the authorities and that is why some of the headmistresses and headmasters also are finding ways and means to ensure that they are able to still sustain the kids and provide them with the needed kind of education.
“Unfortunately, the managers of our education do not appreciate these gestures, these innovative ideas, and ways of solving problems and therefore they always see these as illegal.”
For his part, President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Angel Carbonu told heads of the various senior high schools to sit aloof and allow the challenges in the schools to remain.
This is the only way to make the government realize the actual problems in the schools and take steps to resolve them, he said.
If the heads always take the initiative to resolve the issues, the government will think that all is well in the schools, and won’t take any steps to resolve the actual problems, he added.
“Sometimes I also blame the heads, they are too enthusiastic to ensure that there is education for the students. I will advise in the current situation, the heads of the schools should also stay aloof.
“Maybe they are not staying aloof enough for the government to see that there is a problem, they are being moved by the need to provide good education and take action that will get them into trouble. We are calling for the reinstatement of the headmistress of West Africa SHS because the problem is bigger than the incident that occurred in WASS,” he said at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, July 20 while reacting to the interdiction of the Headmistress of West Africa Senior High School.
NAGRAT wants the headmistress reinstated.
Carbonu said that the government had failed to resolve the problems in the senior high schools which is forcing some heads to take actions to ensure the education of the students goes on.
Announcing the interdiction in a statement dated July 19 and signed by the head of Public Relations, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, the GES said the Regional Disciplinary Committee has been tasked to look into the matter and make the final determination.
“She is to hand over the administration of the school to the Regional Director of Education pending the final determination of the case by the regional disciplinary committee,” the statement added.
The NAGRAT president said “In the case of West Africa Senio High School, through the ingenuity of parents, the president of the PTA identified problems with the school and they decided to levy themselves.
“The only problem from the investigations that I have carried out is that it is the assistant headmaster who gave his mobile money number to be the conduit through which the payments are made.
“The investigations should rather go into what the money collected was used for. Is it used for the consumption of an individual or it is the for the purpose that will ensure the education of the students? If it is for the purpose that will enhance the education of the students it tells you that there is a government supply deficit that created the vacuum for the need for this money to be collected to fill that deficit.”
SOURCE:3NEWS