The Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has maintained that transformative development of the education sector requires the adoption of a holistic systemic approach that needed doing many different things at the same time by the various sub-sector agencies and organisations to achieve the greater goal.
Speaking at the National Education Week (NEW) conference at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), the minister mentioned that so many people have raised concerns about the education sector experiencing so many initiatives at the same time. But many things are being done concurrently because the system is set up to operate in such a manner.
He emphasised that for the country to catch up with the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) method of education, the need to take a multiplicity of actions implemented effectively, efficiently and concurrently is paramount.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), National Teaching Council (NTC), Commission for Technical and Vocational Educational Training (CTVET), Ghana Education Service (GES), and all the other agencies in the education sector, must therefore do their work well in synchrony to successfully transform the sector, he stressed.
“I believe that we are the pacesetters of the major transformation of our education sector. Some may say we are doing too many things; but I tell you, when all the other agencies do their work well, of course, there will be so many things to be done; but this is because that is how the system has been set up.
“When the Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS) is doing well with IT integration, it is only normal to hear about that aspect, likewise the other agencies, and so, we need to do all those things for the transformation to happen,” he said.
Touching on gross tertiary enrolment and the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy, the minister reiterated that the FSHS policy was introduced because the government wanted to increase the tertiary enrolment ratio, and that cannot increase without enough supply from the secondary level. So, the FSHS opened the door to first increase the gross secondary enrolment ratio.
Chairman for NEW Dr. Charles Yeboah remarked that education systems, properly implemented, provide the best anchor and hope for the future, adding that quality education in Ghanaian schools is surely the best way to future-proof citizens against any shock in the future, be it socio-economic or socio-political.
“The task of education and the job of educators is to ensure that we raise future citizens and leaders who are well-educated and prepared for the future we seek, no matter how challenging that future would look,” he said.
“We are a nation with serious gifts and talents from God, and so we need to harness these gifts and talents to compete with the rest of the world,” he added.
This year’s National Education Week (NEW), held on 10-14th October, 2022 with a call on stakeholders to help build a robust educational system in the country, was under the theme: ‘Reforming the Education Sector for Effective Service Delivery: Assessing Progress’.
The week is set aside annually to engage stakeholders in the review of sector performance and collectively strategise toward the attainment of sector targets in the ensuing year.
