The Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has challenged Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions to improve their educational outcomes or risk having their institutions closed down.
He explained that a school with a consistent zero to ten per cent pass rate should put together intervention programmes to ensure that majority of their students find opportunities for further studies, rather than becoming liabilities to their parents and society.
Addressing members of CHASS and Principals of TVET in Kumasi, over the weekend, the Education Minister said closing down non-performing schools would help save the nation from huge financial losses incurred by the government. He added that in so doing, the affected students would be redistributed to other nearby schools to enable them to continue their education.
The meeting
The meeting, which is an annual event, was to share with them current state of education in the country, discuss new development in the sector and answer questions on issues affecting them.
He lauded the heads for their roles in transforming education in the country. He also pledged to continue providing the needed resources, urging them to work very hard to achieve success.
The Education Minister also cautioned the heads to desist from preventing first year students from enrolling over failure to procure all items listed on their prospectus.
He indicated that “there is no way any student should be turn away from school because the parents have not been able to procure some items on the school’s prospectus. At least, let them come to the school and the rest could be procured with some time”.
He, however, lamented the addition of many unapproved items on the school’s prospectus, which has led to the bloating of the prospectus for first year students.
Dr Adutwum, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, advised the heads not to do anything that would discourage or prevent any student from having access to education.
Enabling environment
He urged the heads to let it be their goal of doing everything possible to create enabling environment for students to realise their dreams.
For her part, the Deputy Minister for Education, in charge of TVET, Gifty Twum-Ampofo, reminded the Principals to ensure that students were well equipped for the job market.
She also urged the Principals to spend time enhancing their capacity through reading relevant courses and books to support their effort at getting the best training for their students.
Meanwhile, presentations were made by the leadership of the Ghana Education Service (GES), National Education Leadership Institute (NELI), Free Senior High School Secretariat, Funds and Procurement Management Unit (FPMU) and Ghana TVET Service.
