'Make Good Use Of District And Metro Supervisors'

The Deputy Minister for Education in charge of basic schools, Barbara Asher Ayisi is blaming various supervisors of education across the country for the seeming neglect basic education is currently suffering.

As government implements the Free Senior High School policy, some have raised concern about the neglect of basic education, which is also supposed to be free.

Citi News' checks at some public Junior High Schools have shown that parents were being charged for admission, tuition, among other items before their wards are admitted.

The development, which is contrary to provisions for the Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) program generated worry and public debate.

Speaking to Citi News, Mrs. Ayisi acknowledged that these problems existed and explained that onus lay schools to make the issues know to their direct supervisors of education.

“…In your districts, you have a District Director. If it's a metro, you have the metro supervisor in charge of education. We have circuit supervisors. We have the offices there. If I am a headteacher and I have a problem, I need to channel my grievances to all these people.”

These supervisors are then expected to forward the grievances to the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, the Minister added.

However, she said schools were not making good use of these reporting chains and the government was not going to tolerate these shortcomings any longer.

“…But I have realised that some of these things that we hear about all the time, it doesn't go through that [process]. Some may also go through that, get to a point but they don't get to the next stage… When you have a problem, don’t just sit down and assume that a minister somewhere will know that you have a problem.”