Story: Mary Ankrah
The Country Director of the World University of Canada, Mr Akwasi Addai-Boahene, has said Ghanaian teachers need to be equipped with effective teaching methodologies to impart the right knowledge to school children.
The methodologies, he said, could be combined with the use of modern technologies and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to address classroom challenges to make learning enjoyable for children. “We need to design the education sector as a learning organisation which would address emerging issues and confront challenges with research and innovation,” he opined.
Mr Addai-Boahene stated this at the Star-Ghana semi-annual education convention in Accra.
The convention, which brought together Star-Ghana education grant partners and civil society organisations, was on the theme: “Building Partnership towards Quality Education Outcomes”.
It sought to bring the education grant partners to learn lessons about specific projects funded by Star-Ghana were contributing to accountable education service delivery.
Speaking at the convention, Mr Addai-Boahene observed that young children were desperate to be in schools with competent teachers, where they could learn, receive attention, make friends and increase their self-worth.
According to him, there is the need to create a new teacher with the sense of commitment, passion, professionalism and the desire to transform the world with his or her skill.
He disclosed that between 2001 and 2002 and 2008 and 2009, the number of primary school teachers grew from 80, 552 to 114,421, while untrained teachers grew from 35.1 per cent to 52 per cent, resulting in more students for each qualified teacher.
In a bid to remedy the current situation, he said, the only way the country could accelerate the pace of development and growth into a middle income status was to make education more relevant to the social, cultural and economic desires of beneficiaries including communities, parents and children.
“These people want the type of education that will make them dominate and understand their environment, improve and modernise their culture, tradition as well as make them relate to the wider society in a functionally useful way,” he said.
He recommended that it was time to shift from education reforms that were input-focused to outcome-driven, stressing the need for policy makers, education managers, donors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to collaborate to make learning the ultimate objective of education.
For his part, a representative of the National Catholic Secretariat, Mr Samuel Zan, called on the government to partner with religious bodies and civil society organisations for the realisation of true quality education service delivery.
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