School heads advised to use Capitation Grant judiciously

Demon (N/R), Nov. 3, GNA- School heads have been advised to use the Capitation Grant judiciously to enable them to justify it's expenditure if the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) requested them to do so. They were reminded that the Grant was not meant for administrative purposes or for use by head masters and their staff and that the PAC could call on school heads at any time to account for the money. Mr. Asumah Namoro Sanda, District Chief Executive for Saboba/Cheriponi, gave the advise at the close of a three-day workshop on how to improve education in the area for 52 teachers, at the weekend at Demon, in the District.

Tuma-Kavi, a Tamale-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), organised the event with funding from the Christian Children's Fund of Canada, an international NGO, operating in the Northern Region. Topics discussed included Classroom/School Management, Record Keeping, Early Childhood Development and Child Sponsorship. Mr. Sanda advised people not to compare "heavy weight" schools such as Achimota and Prempeh to the less endowed ones in the rural areas.

He said, "Let us improve upon what is at our disposal. We should not compare our community schools to some 'heavy weight' schools in the cities, which would continue to draw back education in our areas." He said teachers could "brighten the corner" where they were by working harder to transform education in their schools and that the best teacher was one whose students always passed his or her examinations. Mr. Sanda noted that the country's education system had gone through a lot of reforms since independence and said the training was aimed at throwing light on the New Education Reform. He said quality education did not depend on the provision of infrastructure, funds and logistics alone but the ability of teachers to impact knowledge to children in their early childhood. Madam Fuseini Katumi, Project Leader of Tuma-Kavi, said the introduction of the Capitation Grant and the School Feeding Programme had resulted in increase in school enrolment with few teachers to handle them. She expressed regret that the academic performance of school children in the district was poor and advised teachers to come together find ways of solving the problem. Madam Katumi said Tuma-Kavi in collaboration with another NGO was building classrooms and sponsoring teacher trainees as strategies to improve education and called on district assemblies to help advance education in the region. 3 Nov. 07