By
Kodjo Adams/Rihana Adam, GNA
Accra, Feb 10, GNA –
The introduction of a new digital approach has increased school inspections
from basic to secondary schools across the country, Dr Haggar Hilda Ampadu, the
Acting Executive Secretary of National Inspectorate Board (NIB) said.
The Board had so far
inspected 448 schools from September 2019 academic year in Greater Accra Region
and Eastern Region and currently inspecting 952 schools in the Ashanti, Volta
and Western Regions.
The Board envisaged
to inspect about 2,381 schools for the academic year across the country.
Dr Ampadu who
announced this on Monday during a press briefing said the transformation was
made possible under the leadership of Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of
Education to change its inspection approach from manual system by introducing
the use of digital tools like tablets, increasing the number of school
inspections in an academic year.
Touching on
standards, Dr Ampadu said the Board had set standards by reviewing best
practices around the world and adopted modules that was suitable for the Ghanaian
system.
She explained that
schools were rated on a four-points quality scale of Outstanding, Good,
Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory, stressing that Satisfactory was the minimum
standard every school in Ghana should achieve.
On data collection
process for the inspection, she said the Board engaged the services of team and
lead inspectors through physical visit to every school under inspection and
interview of school leadership, students, parents, board members, Parent
Teacher Association and School Management Committees.
She said inspectors
observe the teaching of at least three subjects-English, Mathematics and
Science to ascertain teaching effectiveness and measure the level of learning
taking place.
According to her, an
analysis of at least three years of external assessments results, Basic
Education Certificate Examination, West Africa Senior Secondary Certificate
Examination and, Technical and Vocational Education and Training were conducted
to ascertain learner attainment.
“An annual
report of all schools inspected in the academic year will be issued in August
of that Academic year. A copy will be submitted to the Education Select
Committee of Parliament as required by law,” she added.
On the importance of
the initiative, Dr Ampadu said NIB’s inspections helped to know how well
schools were organized to support learning and the practice of teaching.
It also help
identify strengths and weaknesses of schools and use these feedbacks to plan
teacher trainings, resource mobilizations, and future planning purposes.
She urged parents
and the public to keep abreast on how schools in their communities were faring
for effective monitoring and evaluation outcomes.
“The NIB is
poised to work closely with key stakeholders especially parents and guardians
to ensure the holistic and quality development of the human capital required to
truly transform Ghana”.
The Board inspects
2,381 schools out of the 36,000 schools across the country.
The NIB’s mandate is
to set education standards and enforce the standards to ensure quality teaching
and learning in pre-tertiary (private and public) institutions in Ghana.
GNA