PERFORMANCE OF EDUCATION SECTOR REVIEWED (MIRROR, PAGE 22)

From Greater Accra Region

Story: Rose Hayford Darko, Tema

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 review reports and 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 the senior high school level.
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.