By Edward Dankwah
Accra, Aug. 30, GNA – Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a former Minister of Education, said despite many weaknesses, Ghana’s education system is still among the most competitive in Africa and even among developing countries.
He said there were many ways to interpret that, but there were also many weaknesses, which the government and other authorities had realised, hence, the need for some review.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah made these remarks at the presentation of the Ghana Directory of Scholarships and Financial Assistance to the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA), and personality reading by Dr. Spio-Garbrah in Accra.
This was organised by the Africa Business Center for Developing Education (ABCDE) in collaboration with GhLA.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah said there was a need to assemble appropriate and relevant individuals, particularly former education Ministers, to contribute to the educational system as far as the review of the programmes was concerned.
“…and so, I am hoping that if there will be a true review of the programmes, such individuals will be contacted because, at the end of the day, it will work for everybody,” he added.
Dr. Spio-Garbrah said the Directory would help students, especially those in the second cycle schools and yet to pursue tertiary education, to be able to plot out more effectively, especially with the help of their parents the institutions they may wish to study.
“So, in this very directory, we have aggregated all the sources of scholarships and financial assistance that ABCDE are aware of, but the numbers change, and the programmes also change, so we also have to review this directory and come out with another edition,” he added.
He said there were over 200 scholarship schemes listed in the directory but there could be 500, and that they were thinking about the introduction of another directory that would go beyond the shores of Ghana.
Mr Hayford Siaw, the Chief Executive Officer of GhLA, said the Library Authority since 2018, had one of its key pillars to increase the visibility of the public libraries across the country.
He said the GhLA was in 2017, less than 400,000 people visited public libraries across the country, but last year, there were over 1.4 million, and by the end of this year, they hope to reach over two million people visiting public libraries in the country.
“This is a clear indication that the work we have been doing in terms of making sure that our shelves are filled with relevant materials, we have increased the network of public libraries across the country and making sure that the resources available on the shelves of our libraries are relevant,” he added.
Mr Siaw commended the team for researching and coming up with a book with all the relevant information to aid students in pursuing their educational careers.
“…until today, we did not have curated resources when it comes to scholarship across the world, of course, we offer opportunities for online assets to some of these opportunities, but for a team to actually sit down and research and create a book, I think it is quite commendable,” he said.
The CEO said they were anticipating that out of this, people would be coming to the library to have access to these resources which otherwise they might not have had access to.
GNA