Use of digital device increases inspection in schools - NIB

The introduction of a new digital approach has increased school inspections from basic to secondary schools across the country, Dr Haggar Hilda Ampadu, the Acting Executive Secretary of National Inspectorate Board (NIB) said.

The Board had so far inspected 448 schools from September 2019 academic year in Greater Accra Region and Eastern Region and currently inspecting 952 schools in the Ashanti, Volta and Western Regions.

The Board envisaged to inspect about 2,381 schools for the academic year across the country.

Dr Ampadu who announced this on Monday during a press briefing said the transformation was made possible under the leadership of Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education to change its inspection approach from manual system by introducing the use of digital tools like tablets, increasing the number of school inspections in an academic year.

Touching on standards, Dr Ampadu said the Board had set standards by reviewing best practices around the world and adopted modules that was suitable for the Ghanaian system.

She explained that schools were rated on a four-points quality scale of Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory, stressing that Satisfactory was the minimum standard every school in Ghana should achieve.

On data collection process for the inspection, she said the Board engaged the services of team and lead inspectors through physical visit to every school under inspection and interview of school leadership, students, parents, board members, Parent Teacher Association and School Management Committees.

She said inspectors observe the teaching of at least three subjects-English, Mathematics and Science to ascertain teaching effectiveness and measure the level of learning taking place.

According to her, an analysis of at least three years of external assessments results, Basic Education Certificate Examination, West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate Examination and, Technical and Vocational Education and Training were conducted to ascertain learner attainment.

"An annual report of all schools inspected in the academic year will be issued in August of that Academic year. A copy will be submitted to the Education Select Committee of Parliament as required by law,” she added.

On the importance of the initiative, Dr Ampadu said NIB’s inspections helped to know how well schools were organized to support learning and the practice of teaching.

It also help identify strengths and weaknesses of schools and use these feedbacks to plan teacher trainings, resource mobilizations, and future planning purposes.

She urged parents and the public to keep abreast on how schools in their communities were faring for effective monitoring and evaluation outcomes.

"The NIB is poised to work closely with key stakeholders especially parents and guardians to ensure the holistic and quality development of the human capital required to truly transform Ghana".

The Board inspects 2,381 schools out of the 36,000 schools across the country.

The NIB’s mandate is to set education standards and enforce the standards to ensure quality teaching and learning in pre-tertiary (private and public) institutions in Ghana.