Church and Government urged to share the cost of quality education

Koforidua, April 15, GNA - The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah, has called on Churches to share the cost of quality education delivery with Government by streamlining procedures that ensure efficient and effective management of schools.

He also suggested to the churches to put in place awards and incentives to motivate teachers to give of their best. This was contained a in speech read on his behalf at the opening of the 35th Annual Conference of Managers and Heads of Anglican Higher Institutions in Koforidua on Thursday.

The six-day conference is being organized under the theme "Quality Education Delivery in Ghana, The Role of the Church" and is being attended by 40 participants.

Mr Barimah called on the church to intensify the teaching of religion and moral education and make HIV/AIDS awareness part of the curriculum to help reduce the effect of the disease on the youth. Ms Wilhelmina Ashie, General Manager of the Anglican Education Unit, called on local managers of the Anglican schools to intensify their supervision of the schools and to take keen interest in the material and spiritual needs of the teachers and students of the Unit. She called on the Church to sponsor brilliant pupil-teachers to the teacher training colleges and to provide financial assistance to brilliant but needy students.

Ms Ashie said, last year, almost all the Anglican second-cycle schools in the country improved upon their positions on the Senior Secondary School's Examination league table and urged the heads of those institutions to strive harder to reach the top.

Earlier in a welcoming address, the Bishop of Koforidua Diocese of the Anglican Church, Rt. Rev. Francis B. Quashie, who is also the Chairman of the Human Resource Development Desk (HRDD) of the Joint Anglican Diocesan Council (JADC), assured the participants that the council would consider the decisions that would be taken at the conference.

He said the Anglican Diocese of Koforidua was considering the provision of a permanent office and a vehicle to the Eastern Regional Anglican Education Unit to enhance their work. Rt. Rev. Quashie said the Diocese had already provided a computer and accessories to the unit.

The New Juaben Municipal Director of Education, Ms Felicia Duku, who chaired the function, called for a change in the teaching methodology to enable the children to apply what they are taught. She called on the Managers of the religious education units to desist from conniving with lactating mothers to stay at home for up to a year and collecting their salaries by approving fictitious medical reports for such mothers.