Education stakeholders peer learning forum held in Bolgatanga

Mangers of Faith-based schools in the Upper East Region, have met at a peer learning forum in Bolgatanga as part of a periodic review to share ideas and success models in school, as ways to improve the downward trend of education.

The occasion was also to deliberate on best practices that have worked well, and could be replicated in other schools to improve educational standards in the region.

Mr Samuel Zan, Executive Secretary, and Human Development Officer of National Catholic Secretariat, said though the forum was the third of its kind, the periodic forum and increased participation involving Directors of Education, Circuit Supervisors, School Heads and Managers of Schools, would deepen ideas and experiences to check the down spiral of education.

Mr Zan indicated that promoting knowledge and localizing solutions should not rest always on policy makers.

He acknowledged that in spite of the deprived situations in some faith-based schools, their contributions to education were immense.

The forum, funded by STAR-Ghana, according to him, was a stakeholders market where generic models could help build effective partnership for development, which he added, would continuously be pursued for effective education delivery.

He noted that the event would consistently be maintained and the outcome documented as part of the effective partnership and a dialogue to establish clear blue print on the partnership with government.

Mr Emmanuel Sombo Zumakper, Upper East Regional Director of Education, in a presentation on strategies for improving quality education in the region, said education was a social enterprise and needed collective efforts of all, including government, school heads, parents, and pupils.

He expressed displeasure at parents who abdicate their responsibilities to school heads, and added that as parents they had the moral responsibility first and foremost for the education of their children.

He bemoaned the lack of commitment by some teachers, and said the style of teaching by some of them was a contributory factor to failures in schools, and called for teacher-support-teams, to help teachers solve some of the problems they identified as militating against their work.

He called for stringent measures against alcoholism among teachers, and asked school heads to distinguish between their core mandate and not to abdicate it for periphery things.

Mr Zumakper suggested that teachers should make follow-ups on pupils they teach, in areas of lessons taught, assignment, and discuss them and critically pay attention to special needs of children in the class and find ways to address them, by which they could position the children in better ways to learn.

Mr Zumakper emphasized on paying attention to sending qualified and trained teachers to the lower primary, to effectively build strong foundation of pupils for the upper classes. “If we solidify this at that level the children would pick up very well,” he added.

He said necessary efforts must be made to check overcrowding in schools, since that did not put any seriousness on children to learn, because teachers found it difficult to move around and check the pupils, and added that these were tenets of good education. He mentioned in-service training for teachers as means of learning new ideas, availability of school libraries, Infrastructure and lack of accommodation for teachers, as problems affecting teaching and learning.