Education Ministry collaborates with Private Sector for quality

education

Accra, Aug. 18, GNA - The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports is strengthening its collaboration with the Private Sector and other partners in education to ensure quality basic education for all children.

This is in line with the Quality Improvement in Primary Schools (QUIPS) Programme that is ongoing within the country, Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Sector Minister has said.

He was speaking at a forum organised by the Ghana Education Service (GES) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and QUIPS.

QUIPS is a programme by the GES and the USAID that has brought on board all stakeholders to form a committee to implement quality education programmes in basic schools.

Mr Baah-Wiredu lauded the QUIPS programme and said the Government was in support of the programme because primary education had been identified as the single major contributor to the phenomenal growth in many developed countries.

Mr Baah-Wiredu called on all the stakeholders in the education sector, especially, District Chief Executives (DCE) and District Directors of Education, to co-operate with each other as a first step towards achieving sustainable quality education delivery in districts in particular and in the nation.

The forum was under the theme: "Sustaining QUIPS' Best Practices; A Collaborative Approach Towards Improving Quality in Basic Education" and is aimed at improving management practices in schools.

About 1,789 Teachers and Circuit Supervisors from 275 primary schools have so far benefited from in-service trainings in their teaching profession by the QUIPS Project.

The programme has also provided training in basic management skills for staffs in all the 86 districts in the Southern Sector and has three implementing organizations - Improving Learning Through Partnership (ILP), Community School Alliances (CSA) and Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (PME).

The programme started in 1997 when the situation in most primary schools was deplorable.

Mr Alex Newton, a representative of USAID, said the QUIPS program supported activities in 110 district of the country and it had reached more than 2,640 schools and communities.

Mr Newton said about 760,000 primary school children benefited directly from the QUIPS and a total of 2,640 Head Teachers had been introduced to the programme to improve their instructional skills. The QUIPS programme would end in September this year.