RCC expresses concern about delays and shoddy work of contractors

Sunyani (B/A), April 20, GNA - The Brong-Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council (RCC) has expressed worry about the delays in the completion of projects and the shoddy work done by some contractors for public basic schools in the region. Mr Francis Boateng, Regional Coordinating Director warned that the Council intended to meet with the contractors to review and if necessary terminate the work of those who had not completed their work as scheduled.

He was speaking at the close of the Regional Education Review Meeting of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Sunyani. Mr Boateng warned that contractors whose work would be terminated would not benefit from any contracts from the RCC and would be exposed to the general public.

The three-day meeting was attended by 153 participants made up of municipal and district directors of education, unit managers, heads of schools and girls education coordinators. Mr Boateng said the RCC was pursuing a number of projects to help improve the infrastructural base of public basic schools and that lack of proper and continuous monitoring of contractors had affected the pace of the projects. He said the RCC was spending huge sums of money to furnish the schools with adequate teaching and learning materials and had also decided to provide incentive packages to teachers serving in deprived communities.

The Regional Coordinating Director explained that apart from the acquisition of knowledge, education also helped unearth and harness talents that guaranteed quality human resource base needed for nation building.

Mr Boateng appealed to Non Governmental Organisations and philanthropists to contribute meaningfully towards effective teaching and learning in schools.

Mr Asamoah Doudu, Director of Technical Education of GES explained that the draft education strategic plan covered the period of 2010-2020 and took cognizance of the Acts, policies, reviews and papers of national, regional and district importance. He said under the draft, a sub-sector approach had been adopted in order to reflect the actual structure of the education system. Mr Doudu said through policy commitment for pre-tertiary, the government intended to motivate parents and learners through abolition of fees and provision of uniforms to at least 1.6 million needy children among other things.

The government would also provide teaching incentives through special allowances for mathematics, science, technical and vocational teachers.

The participants mentioned the lack of trained teachers and poor roads, which hindered effective supervision and monitoring, as some of the challenges they faced.