Speed Up Release Of Capitation Grant - Heads Of Basic Schools

Mr Lee Ocran - Minister of Education

The Ga South Municipal Conference of Heads of Basic Schools (COHBS) has called for the speedy and timely release of the Capitation Grant to ensure the smooth running of schools.

That, it said, was because the delay in the release of the grant was hampering academic activities.

The Chairman of Ga South COHBS, Mr John Gyatsen, made the call at the Second Annual Conference of the COHBS in Accra.

“The Capitation Grant meant for the running of schools though inadequate to solve all the financial needs of our schools is essential. '

Delay in the release of the Capitation Grant thwarts the effective running of schools,” he stated.

“COHBS is, therefore, urging the concern authorities to release the funds in time to ensure the smooth administration and management,” he said.

He said activities undertaken last year to improve performance in school had yielded positive results, and that “this attests to why Ga South Municipality performed well in the 2011 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE)”.

Mr Gyatsen said improving the performance of the school child had been the concern of all stakeholders of education.

The conference which was on the theme: “Improving the performance of the school child; the role of the Basic school headteacher”, was to deliberate on measures that would help enhance performance in basic schools.

“We cannot talk of ways of enhancing performance in our schools in the absence of the challenges that bedevils sustainable progress in our schools,” Mr Gyatsen said.

With the introduction of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in basic schools, he said, computers with their associated devices and ICT teachers were inadequate or absent, and that as a result of that most schools had to procure their own ICT facilities.

Mr Gyatsen, therefore, called for the supply of the relevant ICT facilities and the organisation of an intensive ICT training for all teachers teaching in basic schools.

A Deputy Minister of Education, Mrs Elizabeth Amoah-Tetteh, said the provision of quality education could not be done single-handledly, and that it took the collaboration of all stakeholders in education.

They include the government, metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, parents, NGOs, school management committees (SMCs), community based organisations, traditional rulers, coporate bodies, school heads, teachers and students.

“I wish to stress on the learners themselves because, with all efforts put in by the various stakeholders if the learners do not play their roles of learning, it would all be in vain and fruitless,” she said.

Mrs Amoah-Tetteh appealed to PTAs, SMCs, heads and stakeholders to intervene in reversing the falling standard of education.

The Greater Accra Regional Chairperson of COHBS, Naa Addoley Bulley Boye-Quaye, charged heads to show concern for their colleagues and children under their care.

She said heads must set targets for the school child termly while teachers reviewed their methodology in order to enhance their teaching and learning processes.

In an address read on her behalf, the Ga South Municipal Director of Education, Mrs Florence Addo, commended the headteachers for their hardwork which he believed would improve performance at the BECE level.