Participants at the Accra and Eastern regions events of the ongoing nationwide National Education Forum have suggested that the government engages operators of private schools to reduce congestion in senior high schools.
“When it comes to the double load of students for the SHS facilities, private SHSs should be engaged and a capitation fee would then be agreed with these institutions.
“With that, students could be more equitably distributed and still get a good education within the communities,” the spokesperson for the infrastructure group, Professor Afua Hesse, said when presenting a document from her group.
The infrastructure group was one of five breakup group sessions to discuss how to meet the theme of the forum dubbed, “Transforming Education for a Sustainable Development”.
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6-unit classroom block
On the availability of land for educational infrastructural development, she said the group recommended that as a country, “we should consider going up rather than just lateral for construction of basic schools, especially in cosmopolitan areas.
“However, we have to make sure they are friendly for disabled individuals as per existing law,” Prof. Hesse added.
She said the group’s position was that the basic six-unit classroom block infrastructure for the basic level was not enough.
“If you are going to include KG, it has to be a minimum of a nine-unit classroom block, plus ancillary facilities, which would include ICT labs, library, washrooms, teacher classrooms, and so on.
“So, that idea has to be part of the policy going forward,” Prof. Hesse said.
Standards
She said the group expressed concern that there were no clear-cut standards for building basic schools in terms of allocation per student area.
“So, people just get up and build any size of unit classroom blocks at the basic level. So, as a policy, there should be development of clear-cut standards for building basic school infrastructure,” Prof. Hesse said in conveying the group’s proposal.
On virtual infrastructure, she said the group proposed government-leveraged technology and virtual platforms to help with the infrastructure challenges and, consider an open university which would be purely online in order to reduce the burden on infrastructure.
Forum committee
The Planning Committee Chairman Prof George K. T. Oduro thanked the participants for the valuable contributions, esplaining that the forum was to solicite ideas from stakeholders and the public to reset education in the country.
A member of the committee Dr Samuel Awuku, who outlined the purpose of the forum, encouraged participants to continue to submit their memoranda for input into the final document to be presented to the President.
Opening session
During the opening session, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo, stressed the need for an inclusive educational system, which created problem solvers and inculcated ethical values into learners.
She expressed worry about the moral decay among the children and the youth and stressed the need to go beyond preparing for exams and preparing them for life.
