In service training for teachers open

Koforidua, Jan. 18, GNA- A nine-day in-service training for teachers in the New Juaben Municipality opened in Koforidua on Thursday with a call on teachers to give of their best for the success of the new educational reforms.

The programme was aimed at building the capacity of teachers on the practices, trends and skills in the education syllabus as a result of the reforms.

The Municipal Chief Executive, (MCE) Nana Adjei Boateng, who said, the curriculum had been structured to reflect national development goals of poverty alleviation and wealth creation. He said the revised syllabuses placed emphasis on ICT, moral values and positive attitude building, therefore the need to train teachers on the effective teaching of the syllabuses was imperative. Nana Adjei Boateng said as part of the reforms, government intended to upgrade and update teachers to meet the challenges of the reforms and cited the distance education programme as one of such initiatives. The MCE pledged the support of the assembly to the development of education and especially, for teachers to ensure that, the purpose of the new education reforms was realized.

The Municipal Director of Education, Mrs Christiana Boateng, said teachers in the early childhood and kindergartens had already been trained on the tenets of the new reforms. She explained that the cluster-based training had been designed in batches so that normal classes was not affected and urged the teachers to take the training seriously since it was the only way for them to be effective in teaching as far as the new educational reforms were concerned.Lack of electricity hindering PSI in Asante-Akim South

Juaso (Ash), Jan.18, GNA - The President's initiative of bringing education to the door step of the Ghanaian child through distance learning seems not to have its desirable impact, especially at the grassroots due to lack of electricity. The situation has limited the benefits of the programme to a few children who are fortunate be in either cities or urban areas, thereby defeating the original purpose of reaching out to millions of children across the country.

Since television is the main medium of extending the programme to its target audience places without electricity are deprived of the opportunity of reaping the full benefits of the programme. Mr. Fabian Belieb, Asante- Akim South District Director of Education in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) said a peculiar situation existed in the district, saying it was hindering the success of the programme in the district.

He said it was disheartening to note that, after years since the President's Special Initiatives (PSI) on distance learning was introduced most pupils in rural areas are not aware of its existence, a situation that calls for a concerted effort to make the programme beneficial to all. According to him about 70 percent of the communities in the district were without electricity hence televisions distributed to schools under the programme were accessed by communities with electricity supply. He appealed to government to extend electricity to these deprived communities to ensure that the programme reached majority of its targets.