Need for holistic National Educational Policy - Participants

Accra, May 13, GNA - Participants at a day's education forum organized by CITI FM, a local FM Station in Accra, on Wednesday called on government to come out with a holistic national Educational Policy to address the controversy over the duration of educational system in the country.

They argued that Ghana needs a comprehensive policy, which should be governed by the state and not by political parties.

"The problems we have with the standard of education in this country have nothing to do with the duration but have to do with facilities and motivation of our teachers," they said.

The forum, the third event to be organized by the FM station, was under the theme, "Charting a path for the 21st Century-Ghana's education response” and attracted over 100 educationists, students, traditional rulers and farmers across the country.

They argued that in the past, because students were matured before entering secondary school they turned to mentor their juniors and prepared them in terms of training and good moral practices.

"But what we see now are young boys and girls who are not mentored because their seniors are also as young as themselves," they said.

Mr Emmanuel Dei-Tumi, a motivational speaker, said the country was producing young men who were disconnected from its economic chain and they would all turn into armed robbers if care was not taken.

"Our educational system is like a sieve, if you make it in the primary level, you move to another stage but if you fail to make it, you drop out and the chance of you making it from that level is zero," he said.

Professor James Florlu, Dean of Creative Arts, University of Education, Winneba, said Ghana needed a well-developed educational system to meet the future demands of the country.

He said the primary task for every government should be to provide quality education to its citizenry.

"Ghana celebrated 50 years barely two years ago but we are still here deliberating over ways and means to give quality education to our youth," he said.

Prof. Florlu said although there had been several educational reports in the past, lack of systematic research and monitoring made implementation of such reports very difficult.

Professor J.S. Djangmah, Former Chairman of WAEC Council, said there was a huge gap between private and public schools and linked that to poverty on the part of parents and lack of infrastructure and human resources in the public schools.

GNA