President of National Association of Graduates Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu has stated that secondary education is in crises due to unresolved challenges brought by the introduction of the Free Senior High policy after five years of the policy.
According to the NAGRAT President, he has enumerated several times on many platforms that the Free SHS policy is a good policy , but there are many concerns raised by heads of SHS, and all the teacher unions which the government and for that matter the ministry of education has ignored and failed to address them which has compounded many problems in the various SHS across the country.
Angel Carbonu therefore chided the government, the ministry of education as well as GES to cease intimidating heads of schools whenever they raise concerns about their challenges because when heads of schools speak it means they are speaking on the actual problems on the ground.
Finally, he urged the ministry of education , the Ghana Education Service to immediately come out with a framework within the shortest possible time of ensuring that funds are released to the schools timeously and adequately.
Angel Carbonu disclosed this during the 60th anniversary celebration of Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary School (CHASS ) in Koforidua in the Eastern region.
The theme for the 60th anniversary celebration was “Sixty Years of Shaping Second Cycle Education in Ghana Challenges and Successes in Contemporary Times; The Role of Stakeholders”.
Mr. Angel Carbonu further added that headmasters and headmistress have been teaching and superintending over schools without leave or break , this he said is against the labour law for any group of workers to be working without break or leave unless it is negotiated for them to be compensated.
Therefore he also asked government to address the double track problem since it has taken tow on the time period teachers had to spend in school hence the need renegotiations because it has implications for conditions of service.
However, the Minister of Education , Hon. Yaw Osei Adutwum in his response said the government recognizes the challenges that exist in the educational sector which the ministry is working simultaneously to fix the challenge.
He said even though there are challenges , but that doesn’t defeat the fact that there has been a significant improvement in the educational sector over the past years , saying there has been increased in enrollment from 800,000 to 1.3 million in senior high schools.
Adding that there has also been an improvement in the distribution of textbooks and infrastructure as well as about 50% of students are now passing the core subjects in WASSCE , this he said is a great achievement which needs to be highlighted.
On the other hand, the CHASS President, Alhaji A.B Abubakar said government has failed to release recurrent funds and some instances there has been delays in the release of the funds making it difficult for heads of schools to undertake certain school activities ending up running the school on borrowing and on credit.
He further called on the government and management of the Ghana Education Service to look at the function of buffer stock in terms of the supply of foods to schools at the SHS level since there has been Challenges about shortage of foods in schools in recent times.
He urged government to allow heads of schools to actively participate in the procurement processes regarding furniture supply to schools, and also said government should release recurrent funds to cater for day school students.
Alhaji A.B Abubakar revealed further that some Schools are having challenges of electricity payment because they are connected with metres that are prepaid, and the delay and non release of funds to school plunge such school in the untold hardship , therefore called on GES to ensure that all schools use post paid metres to savage the situation.
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Education Desk
