Government to ensure success of new education reform

Accra, May 22, GNA - In an effort to achieve the objectives behind the introduction of the new education reforms, government is in the process of providing new education structures, refurbishing existing ones, supplying teaching logistics and introducing teaching programmes, which are all aimed at enhancing the competence of teachers.

"The review of the education syllabus is to make us more capable of providing for the youth the skills needed for a human resource base that would make it possible for the country to develop and also cope with the changing trend in the global market economy," said Mr Emmanuel Opare, Deputy Director, Basic Education Division, Ghana Education Service (GES).

Speaking at a seminar organized for members of Link Community Development (LCD), a non-governmental organization (NGO), he said although it was the government's responsibility to provide quality education for the citizenry,

it was incumbent on the people to complement the efforts by absorbing related costs and also sending their children to school. Mr. Opare expressed his gratitude to LCD in its efforts in helping to provide sound education in deprived districts and appealed to the management of the NGO to extend the gesture to other districts in the country. Link Community Development established in the country in 1999 is an international organization operating in 111 target schools in the Ashanti and Upper East regions.

Its main aim is to help provide quality education in its operational areas. It could be found in five other African countries. Dr Kennedy Quaigrain, Ghana Programme Director of LCD, said since the NGO became operational in the country, there had been remarkable improvement to the education sector and this included the supply of teachers to remote areas, provision of basic infrastructure, increased teaching and learning drive and the desire toward community ownership of schools. He said LCD had also facilitated a lot of exchange programmes for pupils, which had helped to promote the sharing of ideas, broadened their minds, writing skills and also provided school projects. He observed that the major problem facing LCD was that most of the teachers who they helped to upgrade, deserted the teaching field afterwards.