Preference For Public Schools Still High � Aheto Tsegah

The acting Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Aheto Tsegah has downplayed assertions that the preference for most of Ghana�s public schools has dwindled. He said the notion that parents are sending their wards to the private schools because of a vote of no confidence in the public ones does not hold. A lot of private schools both at the secondary and tertiary levels are springing up, and they are challenging the quality and excellence of public institutions. A large number of Ghanaian parents are sending their children to these private institutions due to the increasing perception that these private schools deliver quality education as compared to the public ones. But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Tsegah dismissed these assertions saying, �the fact that parents are opting for the private schools doesn�t mean the public school systems are bad.� He insisted that public schools are still delivering quality education, since �quality is not about the number of programmes that you[private schools] run but the quality and content of the programmes.� Commenting on the fallen standards of education and lack of desire by children for education in the Central Region, the Director General of the GES confirmed �a lot of children along that line just go to school and lookout through the window and when the boat comes they jump out.� He attributed the poor school attendance by pupils in the region to a lack of supervision, adding that the problem is prevalent in the region because �most of the teachers are not controlled.�