A Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum says government will not send qualified Senior High School (SHS) students to private SHSs as part of measures aimed at solving the huge infrastructural deficit in public schools.
This is because the minister believes some of the teachers in the private SHSs do not qualify to teach at the public SHSs and so state resources, therefore, cannot be spent on them.
Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM Tuesday morning, Dr Adutwum said he cannot vouch for the quality of education in the private SHSs, saying space alone is not enough grounds to guarantee quality education.
"Space does not educate children," he said, adding “the teachers they (Private SHSs) have do not qualify to teach at the public schools”.
Dr Adutwum was in the studios of Citi FM to discuss issues relating to the double intake of SHS students.
President Akufo-Addo has announced that government will implement the double intake system for new entrants into public SHSs September this as part of measures to address the growing number of students benefitting from the free SHS policy.
The double track system, according to President Akufo-Addo, would create room to accommodate the increase in enrolment, saying “It will reduce class sizes, increase the contact hours, as well as increase the number of holidays, and all this is going to be achieved with the existing infrastructure. So we are moving to this intervention to be able to accommodate this larger population of SHS students,”.
Dr Adutwum explained that although the private sector plays a key role in many sectors of the country's development, it is not government's intention to offer students under the Free SHS programme to the private SHSs.
He said there are two types of private schools in the country; the high performing schools and those that thrive on cut-off students.
He explained that the high performing private SHSs do not have space, adding that "they have a waiting list; they do not have space."
<iframe src="http://content.jwplatform.com/players/bs0SSAK1-GtVgZhNx.html" width="480" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto"></iframe>
Source: Daily Graphic
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. |
Why should this man be taken serious? In fact if you have so called minister of education speaking this way, then no wander our educational sector is suffering.
There are slot of teachers who have been trained and are teaching in the private schools because of their inability to gain employment to the public school.lam a perfect example.lam completed UCC where I did Education but still in the private school.Iam not alone,there are million others who are in the same situation as Iam. We are scattered all over the private schools in Ghana being denied the right remuneration.Please kindly make the recruitment into the public school opened so that we can all applied. The private schools are really cheating us
You may not have read the article with understanding. This report doesn’t suggest anywhere that teachers disqualification from teaching in public schools is due to their incompetence, lack of skills. It could mean that the mode of accessing and recruiting could simply be different. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t indicate whether the deputy Minister was asked to explain his comment. The deputy minister admits that there are private schools with lists. This clearly suggests that not all teachers in private schools are incompetent and lack skills as you sought to express.
Mr. Minister, I do not agree with you on this statement.Over the years, the private schools have been able to attract skilled and qualified teachers in their various schools and the turn around is incredible. When was the last time proper recruitment of graduate teachers was done by the GES? Over these periods of non recruitment graduate teachers are being produced and the Private Institutions have absorbed most of them.Is it not a shame to have teachers with masters degrees teaching in Primary schools as at now. How have recruitment been done within the last three years if any at all. Teachers who have done education are sidelined and ordinary graduates are taken to the classrooms. Please I am not saying all teachers in the Private schools are doing well but your assertion is too 'wild'