A veteran educationist is championing a game-changing move in the administration of Ghanaian schools.
Currently, only trained teachers who have risen through the ranks of the Ghana Education Service (GES) can be bestowed with the privilege of heading a state-owned school.
But education columnist for the Daily Graphic newspaper, Anis Haffer, has asked for revolutionary decision to be taken against that norm.
Mr. Haffer believes the state should invest in qualified managers that can run the schools instead of depending on teachers who may not necessarily be vest with requisite leadership abilities.
Read: Bimbilla: More than 1,600 students share one toilet with town folks
“We need a calibre of qualified people who can show leadership in terms of managing the schools and they do not necessarily have to be teachers,” he said at the “Scorecard” panel discussion, a forum on the government’s performance almost two years into the administration.
The educationist was reacting to concerns that the standards of education was falling both at management level through to the classroom.
Mr. Haffer stated that he has visited schools in the country which lack places of convenience like toilet facilities, “and nobody cares; including the parents.”
“…and who are the people who manage these schools… someone who taught Mathematics for 10 years…but things have changed,” he stressed.
Heads not well-trained?
Speaking on the training that heads of schools receive, Deputy Education Minister, Yaw Osei Adutwum, conceded that some heads of schools do not have the requisite they have to be managers of the institutions.
“…how do you expect a head to well when you did not train him to become a head,” he quizzed.
Yaw Adutwum
The Minister added that some of the headmasters do well in managing the school and but their lack of training makes it difficult for them to be equipped with their performance data.
He gave an example where he went to a school where the headmaster was retiring and some persons asked him not to allow the headmaster any extension since he was the worst head they had.
But after referring to the performance data of the headmaster in question, Dr. Adutwum said he found out the fellow was actually the best head the school had; having raised the pass rate of the school from 12% to over 40%.
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