By Solomon Gumah
Tamale, Feb 20, GNA – Stakeholders in the education sector from the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, North East, and Savannah Regions have participated in a day’s engagement forum to identify challenges hindering equitable education delivery in Northern Ghana.
The forum, held in Tamale, aimed to provide participants with opportunity to contribute recommendations and inputs for the ongoing National Education Forum.
The goal is to ensure that policies emerging from the forum reflect the specific needs of people in these regions.
The National Education Forum is a government-led initiative focused on reviewing policies and programmes to revamp the education sector.
The forum was organized by School for Life, a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to advocating for, and improving access to quality education in Ghana, under its Citizen-Led Actions for Educational Accountability and Responsiveness (CLEAR) Project.
Madam Wedad Sayibu, Director of School for Life, stated that the engagement sought to amplify grassroots voices in the National Education Forum, and emphasized the need to highlight challenges unique to Northern Ghana’s education system and ensure government action on them.
She expressed optimism that the government would prioritise the proposals and recommendations raised by stakeholders to enhance equitable education delivery in the region.
Participants engaged in group discussions on critical areas such as the Free Senior High School (SHS) Policy, education infrastructure, governance, quality education, and financing.
Some of the challenges identified during the event included issues of mass promotion of students under the Free SHS Policy, inadequate infrastructure, political interference, lack of proper monitoring and supervision, as well as inefficient teacher deployment and centralized postings.
The rest are shortage of teaching and learning materials, limited teacher capacity-building initiatives, inadequate furniture and ICT centers, among other critical deficient policies.
They called for the introduction of a cut-off point for Free SHS admissions, construction of circuit-based teacher accommodation with internet connectivity, decentralised teacher postings, and provision of age-appropriate furniture and classrooms.
They further called for minimal political interference in Free SHS implementation and effective monitoring and supervision in schools
Dr Chrys Anab, Head of the Sustainable Development Studies Department at the University for Development Studies, Tamale, who facilitated the forum, commended School for Life for organizing the forum, saying “Not everyone will have the opportunity to participate in the National Education Forum, but with this step-down engagement, we can be assured that citizens’ voices will be heard.”
GNA