The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Ernest Kofi Davis, has embarked on a tour of selected basic schools in the Cape Coast Metropolis to assess challenges affecting institutions with low enrollment.
The visit, which took place on September 15, also saw the distribution of books, pencils, erasers, and drinks to pupils. Professor Davis toured Bakatsir Methodist Basic School, St. Francis Catholic Mixed School, and Jacob Wilson Sey Basic School.
At each school, headteachers outlined pressing challenges ranging from infrastructure and security to the absence of the School Feeding Programme.
Headteacher of Bakatsir Methodist Basic School, Ekua Sikayena Domfeh, highlighted that the lack of the School Feeding Programme and irregular transportation services are contributing to low enrollment.
“Because we are not in the community, the parents think that it’s far away to bring their little ones to the place. The MP had a bus, but it’s not regular. Sometimes it brings them to school and at times too it doesn’t come. So it also affects our enrollment which is 110 from KG to JHS 3,” she explained.
She appealed for urgent interventions, adding: “We should be put on the School Feeding Programme so that it will sustain the students. Then also, the building is an old building, we have some repairs to be done. We have classrooms that we can use for computer labs and science labs, but the fiscal strength is what we lack.”
Addressing the press after the tour, Professor Davis acknowledged the concerns raised and praised the commitment of teachers despite the challenges.
“My understanding, talking to the heads, appears to show that they are new, so they are now embarking on enrollment drive in order to improve the enrollment. Others also mentioned competition with established schools that are now having a lot of infrastructure, and they are also embarking on enrollment drive,” he said.
The GES boss emphasized that infrastructural deficits remain a major concern but assured that plans are underway to address them.
“We need to make sure that classroom space is improved to support 21st-century learning. The good thing is that we’ve budgeted for it, including the schools that are under trees, so I’m hoping that the infrastructure situation will be improved so that we deliver the quality education the country is missing,” he noted.
Professor Davis explained that the tour was also a familiarization exercise to interact with teachers and pupils, especially those in kindergarten and primary one, while identifying urgent reforms needed in the education sector.
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Source: Benjamin Ekow-Hutchful/ATLFMNEWS
