Govt to spend 103 trillion on educational reform

Koforidua, Nov. 7, GNA - The Government is to spend 103 trillion cedis (12 billion dollars) for a period of 11 years under the new educational reform programme, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Mr Kwadwo Baah Wiredu, announced at Koforidua on Saturday. Under the new reform programme, second cycle education in the country would, from the 2007 academic year, comprise three years junior high school and four years senior high school.

The present JSS system will be replaced by the junior high school that would be separately managed from the primary school. In addition, all Teacher Training Colleges will be upgraded to a Diploma level, while the pre-school education from the kindergarten would progressively be part of the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) structure.

Speaking at the second Speech and Prize-Giving Day of the Koforidua Secondary School at Koforidua-Ada, Mr Baah Wiredu announced that the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) formula had been reviewed to ensure that all the 500 Senior Secondary Schools (SSS), 38 Teacher Training Colleges and technical, vocational, educational and training benefited from it.

He commended the Polytechnic Teachers Association of Ghana (POTAG) for calling off their strike action for negotiation and pledged government's readiness for amicable resolution.

The Minster stressed the need for peace in the educational sector to ensure good quality teaching and learning.

Mr Baah Wiredu asked all educational institutions to set up financial aid fund to assist needy but brilliant students in their communities.

He said the government was aware of the important role of teachers and would do everything possible to better their lot.

The Headmistress of the school, Mrs Matilda Regina Appiah, in her annual report, said the school, which started in January 1991 with 25 students now had a student population of 1,300.

She said the academic performance of the school had been improving, saying it recorded 97.8 percent in the 2003 Senior Secondary Certificate Education.

Mrs Appiah said discipline had been high due to stringent measures being adopted and appealed to the authorities to give what she described as a proper "traditional name" to the school since very important letters meant for the school strayed to other schools.

She appealed to the government for the provision of a school bus and the acquisition of new land for the expansion of the school.

The Omanhene of the New Juaben Traditional Area, Daasebre Dr Oti Boateng chaired the function at which prizes were awarded to deserving students and long service awards to some staff and non-teaching staff.