PERFORMANCE OF EDUCATION SECTOR REVIEWED ...By stakeholders in Accra (PAGE 11)

A THREE-DAY annual review programme to assess performance of the education sector in the Greater Accra Region and to critically examine the draft Education Strategy Plan (ESP) which covers 2010-2020 has ended in Tema.
The programme took cognisance of the Education Acts, Policies and review reports, papers of national, regional and district importance in education delivery.
In attendance at the programme were stakeholders from the Greater Accra Region, made up of staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES), metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies, as well as heads of schools from primary to senior high school levels.
The Director-General of the GES, Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, said in an address read on his behalf by Mrs Victoria Donkor, a Director at the Special Education Division of the GES, that education delivery had, over the past six years, been guided by the 2003- 2015 draft ESP, which outlined educational policies, objectives, expected outcomes and various strategies, aimed at achieving educational goals of the country.
According to him, the government's policy was to ensure that basic level education was made free for all children of school age.
He explained that the draft ESP currently under review for 2010-2020 had been adopted to reflect the actual structure of the educational system in the country, adding that its approach was clearer for users and beneficial to planners.
Mr Bannerman-Mensah noted that the draft ESP of 2010-2020 was guided by policy initiatives that emerged over the years following the publication of the previous ESP in May 2003, known as the National Education Reform Implementation Committee (NERIC, 2007).
He called on stakeholders to collate opinions, comments and recommendations to review the draft ESP 2010-2020 during the three-day programme to be embodied in the final ESP for adoption.
The Greater Accra Regional Director of Education, Mrs Ernestina Afosa- Anim, said the annual review programme was one of the important activities which took stock of performance in education delivery in the country.
The Regional Director, therefore, appealed to all stakeholders in education, including parents, to ensure that they played their roles properly to help achieve the final ESP.
Mrs Afosah-Anim noted that the ESP under review focused on 10 goals including improvement in planning and management, expansion of pre-school education, provision of equal opportunities for girls to access education and the promotion and provision of good health and sanitation in schools and institutions .
Others were the improvement and extension of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and the promotion of activities to prevent HIV/AIDS.
She said stakeholders had put in place several interventions in their bid to meet these demands.