Education authorities in Romania have given strong indication they will develop a partnership with their Ghanaian colleagues to help fight possible school dropout under the Free SHS Programme.
Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister Shirley Ayorkor Botchway is currently in Romania cementing Ghana’s ties with the Eastern European country.
During a meeting with the Minister for National Education of Romania, Valentin Popa, as part of her three-day official visit, both countries pledged to do more in the education sector in the coming years.
Madam Botchway said her meeting with the Romanian Education Minister was preliminary and that the Minister for Education in Ghana will follow up and develop the actual modalities to make the pledge a reality.
“There emerged one interesting area of similarity which is the fact that they have a very rigorous programme to ensure that they eradicate school drop outs at the Senior High School level and that is exactly what we are trying to do in Ghana with the Free Senior High School Programme to ensure that every child in Ghana has the opportunity not to truncate his education at the Junior High School level. So what we have done is to just lay the foundation for the Ministry of Education to take it up,” she said after the meeting.
During the deliberations the two parties discussed the possibility of Romanian Tertiary Educational Institutions establishing their presence in Ghana. Romania has already shown interest in this area.
“We have our areas of competence and they have theirs as well, so we looking at how we can cooperate in terms of exchange Programmes not just for students but also for lecturers and Professors. It was even mentioned that some of their Universities could set up campuses in Ghana,” the Minister emphasized.
The Romanian Education System
In Romania, high school starts in the 9th grade and generally takes four years to complete; vocational high schools take five years. Public high schools significantly outnumber private ones. Public institutions do not charge tuition fees and offer scholarships to students with academic merit or/and need.
The Romanian secondary education system includes: National colleges: the most prestigious, well equipped, and internationally-connected secondary institutions in Romania; Military colleges: administered by the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice and other such ministries, alongside the Ministry of Education.
The others are the Economic and technical colleges: both offer academic programs geared towards technical/service industry training; High schools: usually a high school’s name is indicative of its academic focus: theoretical high schools, economic high schools.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Wilberforce Asare
