Government has neglected Basic Schools – Education Directors lament

The President of the Conference of Directors of Education, Mrs. Margaret Frempong Kore has expressed disappointed about government’s neglect of basic schools and rather prioritizing free Senior High School (SHS).

“When you look at what is happening currently in the country, you will say that other sectors of education like both the primary and Junior High Schools (JHS) have been neglected and all the attention is on the free SHS”, she revealed.

She bemoaned a situation where all the Senior High School students are being fed by the government whilst few primary school pupils benefit from the school feeding policy but none of the students in JHS enjoy the feeding programme.

At the second colloquium of the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration (IEPA) of the University of Cape Coast under theme, “The Role of Education Planning in Enhancing Ghana’s Education System: Access, Quality and Relevance”, Mrs. Frempong Kore challenged Education planners to explain to the public why the neglect of JHS on school feeding but rather SHS.

“For me as an implementer, I think that it is an error and I believe that the government should have second look at JHS students because if the SHS students are being fed, then all the basic schools must be treated the same way since they are all Ghanaians” she added.

This, she explained, would help the children to come to school regularly especially those in deprived communities and sit in the school throughout.

Mrs. Frempong Kore who is a former District Director of Education for Accra, lambasted the Ministry of Education for not consulting stakeholders on any reforms in the sector, especially district directors of education.

She stated emphatically that, district directors of education are not allowed to do anything due to the fact that most of the things are centralized at the headquarters.

“so when they say go and work or do this, that is all”, she bemoaned.

In a keynote address, the Deputy Director General of Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Kwabena Bempah Tandoh hinted that his outfit will be rolling out a new, standard-based curriculum for schools.

He observed that the importance of planning in any educational framework cannot be overemphasized hence proper educational planning ensures institutional success, by helping to clearly define goals and how they can be achieved.