By Nii Martey M. Botchway
Accra, Nov 13, GNA – The 10th edition of the Global Super Teachers Conference (GSTC) has ended with a call for the promotion of equity and inclusiveness in education.
The conference, themed “Equity: Inequity in Education anywhere in Africa is a threat to the Socio-Economic Security of African Countries,” included seminars for school owners, managers, teachers and other stakeholders in education.
Participants explored ways to improve the quality and access to education through effective leadership, application of technology, training, awards schemes, edutainment and exhibitions.
There were presentations from top educationists and leadership coaches.
Mr Grant Belmuo, the Director of Programme at AEG, said Ghana needs to put in efforts and implement policies to ensure that every child had access to education, irrespective of the condition or situation.
He said, the country was far behind in creating access to education for children with special needs, a situation which denied some the opportunity to develop their potentials for a brighter future, stating: “We still have a long way to go.”
Mr Belmuo indicated that there are many children with special needs who could not access education, by reason of inadequate special needs resources in the school system.
“We have special needs schools but we need to make more investments in that sector,” he said.
He stated that resources in education were not uniformly distributed, leading to systemic inequalities that further hampered sustainable development.
Mr Belmuo noted that there was a need to strengthen the education system and structures to promote equity and inclusiveness.
He called, also, for an equity-led leadership and governance that would facilitate effective planning, offer broader participation of all in the education space to share and contribute towards better schools, classrooms and subjects.
“It will also promote an effective decentralized mechanism and strategic distribution to ensure that no school, teacher, learner or community is excluded,” he added.
Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, a Deputy Minister of Education who was at the event said the lack of equity in education, especially with regard to access, was what pushed the government to introduce the Free SHS policy to bridge the gap.
He said, before the introduction of Free Senior High School programming, hundreds of thousands of students missed out on the opportunity to further their education, not because they did not have the right passes, but there was no support to continue.
“Six years after, access to senior high school education has doubled from 800,000 to about 1.4million,” he said.
Organised by Africa Education Gateway (AEG) in partnership with Pearson and the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), the Global Super Teachers Conference is a comprehensive educational capacity building and leadership empowerment programme for teachers, managers of schools, education policy makers, students and other stakeholders in the education value chain.
The week-long event brought together more than 2,000 participants to showcase what the country had to offer in terms of education, by allowing schools, institutions and educational businesses to exhibit their services and products.
GNA