70% of private schools to collapse

Government's decision to license all private schools and teachers within the year 2020 as part of the road map to teacher professionalism will lead to the collapse of 70 percent of private schools in Ghana, the Executive Director of Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), Mr. Enoch Gyetuah, has hinted.

Per his assessment, 70 percent of low-fee-paying schools will fold up under the licensing policy owing to the fact that most private schools will not meet the criterion for the licensing.

He continued that should the policy be implemented by 2020, private schools will be forced to employ licensed teachers whose salaries they cannot afford, coupled with the fact that schools without licence would not be permitted to operate, leading to the collapse of many of them.

According to the national boss for GNACOPS, only 5 percent of the private schools (elite schools) will be able to survive under this policy.

“The remaining 25 percent (mission, populated and affiliate schools) will be able to endure for some few years, hopefully up to two and four years,” Mr Gyetuah said.

Dropping this hint in an exclusive interview with the DAILY HERIRAGE, Mr. Gyetuah expressed fear that majority of students would seek admission in public schools and that the government might not have enough infrastructure to accommodate them.

As way of salvaging private institutions from the above-mentioned tsunami of challenges, GNACOPS, he disclosed, had introduced an interventional policy called GNACOPS Volunteer Service Scheme (GVSS).

Under this scheme, all private school teachers will register as volunteers and will be assisted to take up upgrading courses.

He announced that private school teachers registered under this scheme would not be affected; neither would they be eliminated from the teaching profession by the new licensing policy.

Mr Gyetuah, therefore, appealed to proprietors and head teachers of the various institutions within the private sector to get their staff who are not professionally trained to register under the scheme to help save their livelihood.