The Executive Director of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) Mr Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah has revealed that two hundred and twenty-two private schools have collapsed as a result of the Covid-19 induced closure of schools in the country.
Mr Gyetuah said the schools collapsed as a result of a lack of regulatory flexibility.
“We didn’t get regulatory flexibility because the Ministry of Education, department, and agencies did not support the private schools hence their collapse but we are also stakeholders in education delivery in the country,” he stated.
He made this know at a Back to School Stakeholders Conference organized at the Atomic Energy Commission by GNACOPS to proprietors of private schools and teachers from the southern sector comprising of six regions; Greater Accra, Eastern, Western, Volta, Oti, and Central.
Mr Gyetah said the conference was to engage the various stakeholders in the education industry on the challenges the private schools went through during Covid-19, present a report to the agencies and departments of the ministry of education on the effects of the closure of schools.
“We are here to discuss how best we can revamp private education now that schools are reopening, remedies and interventions put forward to subvert these challenges,” the Executive Director noted.
He said issues on the table have to do with the Ministry of Education policy of teacher licensing by the National Teaching Council (NTC), National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) programs for private schools, the National Inspectorate Board policies and the Ministry of Education through Pre-Tertiary engagement.
Mr Gyetuah added the council’s engagement will come out with policy guidelines to regulate private education from post-Covid-19, the need for government support for the sector, and the need to partner with other stakeholders to supplement government support in the provision of personal protective equipment.
Readiness
On the issue of being ready to reopen schools come Monday, January 18, 2021, he noted that if private schools don’t open their schools on the stipulated date, there was going to be a big problem, because private education contributes over 33% of a pre-tertiary level.
“So we are prepared to open schools and also calling for collaborations and support because there is a need for government to support private schools in the country.”
Mr Gyetuah indicated the new syllabi developed by NaCCA under the new reforms categorized education in two areas; it’s the Standard Base Curriculum which looks at Kingdergathen one to Primary six which syllabi are ready for use while the Common Core Programme focusing on JHS1-SHS1 are yet to be developed but the teachers are going to be giving learners manual to teach.
The Public Relation Officer for the National Teaching Council, Mr Dennis Osei Owusu said the teacher licensing will start this Monday, January 18 targeting over 400,000 teachers and by the close of this year, the council can boost at least 80% completion.
Mr Owusu said the main mandate of the council is teacher professionalism, embark on education on how teachers can go through the process because many of them are kept in the dark in relation to the licensure procedure.
He said the process which started on a pilot basis has already licensed 7000 and the process is twofold, that is in-service training for those who are trained teachers and after this, the council will look at the unqualified trained teachers in the system.
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/Philip Antoh
