Comfort Sena Fetrie, GNA
Tamale, Aug 20, GNA –
The Conference of Directors of Education (CODE) has appealed to government to
place District Directors of Education on level 23 of Single Spine Salary instead
of level 22 to enable them enjoy category four allowance.
Mrs Margaret
Frempong-Kore, the National President of CODE made the appeal in Tamale at the
weekend at the close of the 25th Annual Conference of CODE.
She said most of the
Directors used their own salaries to run the education offices due to
inadequate financial support from the government, which was affecting their
performance.
The conference was on
the Theme: “Free Quality Pre-Tertiary Education in Ghana: The Panacea to
National Development” and was meant to deliberate the implications and
ramifications of the free Senior High School (SHS) policy in the context of the
nation’s long struggle for free education.
Mrs Frempong-Kore
stated that CODE had endorsed the double-track and the semester system, which
would begin in September this year and advised all directors to ensure that the
system succeeded.
She urged government
to organise capacity-building training for both teachers and directors to
enable them handle the new curriculum under consideration especially in the
areas of Technical and Vocational Education, as well as Information
Communication Technology (ICT).
A communiqué issued at
the end of the five-day conference also called on government to release
adequate funds regularly to the schools to ensure smooth and effective
management of the education sector.
It also called on the
government to address the infrastructural challenges by providing
infrastructure and other learning and teaching materials for the new curriculum
at the pre-tertiary level.
It said stakeholders
should collaborate with government to provide strong vehicles and office
accommodation for all directors across the country to improve on supervision
and monitoring of the schools.
The communiqué said
all educational policies and reforms should be backed by Act of Parliament,
especially the free SHS to sustain it, while there should be provision of
incentive packages for teachers in the deprived areas to attract and retain
them to ensure equity.
Mr Salifu Saeed, the
Northern Regional Minister who received the communiqué on behalf of the
Government called on the CODE to support government to promote quality
education in the country.
He encouraged
Ghanaians and stakeholders in the education sector to collaborate with
government to achieve the free SHS policy to improve education in the country
and urged the directors of education to ensure discipline among both teachers
and the students in the schools.
Professor Seidu
Al-hassan, the Pro Vice–Chancellor of the University for Development Studies
(UDS) urged government to consider other ways of funding the Free SHS policy in
the long term so as not to solely depend on the current resources.
He said, “Without
adequate funds, the sustainability of the free pre-tertiary education, particularly
the Free SHS is questionable”.
He urged Ghanaians to
own the free quality Pre-tertiary education initiative themselves to shape it
and implement it for the betterment of the nation.
GNA