GES addresses duplication of duties

The Ghana Education Service Council has initiated steps to streamline the role of District Directors and Regional Managers of Education Units to avoid duplication of functions.

This forms part of the Council's recommendations to the Service aimed at resolving the current strained relationship between the district and regional education units regarding performance of roles.

The Ashanti Regional Director of Education, Joseph Kwabena Onyinah, who announced this in Kumasi, said the recommendations were also meant to establish a peaceful and effective partnership between the GES and religious bodies.

Addressing District Directors of Education and Regional Managers of Educational Units in the Ashanti Region, Mr Onyinah said the recommendations redefined the functions of the District Directors of Education and the Unit Managers to eliminate areas where duties overlapped.

He advised participants to look at their structures and operations and make the necessary adjustments to conform to the new national reforms in education.

'If the partnership is to work peacefully and effectively towards the achievement of quality education and opening up of access to a lot of children, then there is the need to review the mode of operation between GES and the educational units', he added.

Mr Onyinah emphasised that the objectives for establishing education units were to supplement government's effort in providing quality and holistic education and maintain high moral, religious and academic standards.

He noted that under the financial decentralisation policy, all salaries and allowances of teachers would go to the District Directors of Education except salaries of unit office staff.

The Sekyere East District Director of Education, Kofi Sarfo-Kantanka, said educational units had no budget line for their teachers and that they should recommend their qualified teachers to the District Directors of Education for promotion and also furnish them with appraisal reports.

Meanwhile, Mr. Onyinah has commended teachers in the Sekyere East District for living up to the billing in ensuring success of the new education reforms despite initial hitches.

He reminded stakeholders that the new educational reform was to instil a sense of discipline into children to study hard to become assets and not liabilities.

Mr Onyinah said this when he addressed over 1,500 basic school teachers from the Sekyere East and Sekyere-Afram Plains Districts attending a three-day district training at Effiduase.

The Sekyere East District Education Directorate organised the training at updating the teachers' knowledge on the curriculum of the new educational reform and also improve their professional performance and academic skills to promote quality education delivery.

Mr Onyinah noted that teachers were the major stakeholders to ensure the success of the reform and that their attitudes and performance would be the criterion to measure the impact of the reform.

The Sekyere East District Director of Education, Mr Kofi Sarfo Kantanka, said equipping teachers with the requisite skills and knowledge was crucial to improve the quality of the instructional process for quality learning in schools.

He said, 'If you are apathetic, uncommitted, uninspired, lazy and ill-motivated, the whole nation is doomed'.