The Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, met the management and staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in a durbar at the forecourt of the GES headquarters to outline his vision for the sector.

In his address, the Minister thanked the management and staff of GES for the successful implementation of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy in the last four years.

He extolled the excellent performance of the maiden candidates of the free Senior High School programme in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), and attributed their success to the hardworking staff of GES and the students.

Dr. Adutwum said “out of 2.1 million candidates that sat for the exams from the five WASSCE countries; Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liberia, 465 candidates obtained 8-As in total, out of which 411 of them are students from Ghana, and curiously, products of the FSHS programme”.

He further challenged the staff of the service to replicate the “wonderful performance” in the Senior High school at the basic school level as well, adding that his vision is to create an education system that is second to none in the sub-region”.

The Minister further emphasized that his primary objective is to create a public basic education system that would outcompete the private basic school system, with parents scrambling for spaces in the public basic school system.

“It’s doable, but this certainly would need a sense of urgency for change,” he added.

He also acknowledged that all the plans he has for the pre-tertiary education sector cannot be achieved without the GES, and tasked everyone to put their shoulders to the wheel in order for all to be part of the success story if it’s to be told in the next decade.

Dr. Adutwum asked the Management of GES to create suggestion boxes and place them at vantage points for officers and staff to drop their ideas on how best to improve the pre-tertiary education system.

In his concluding remarks, the Minister asked all the staff to be worthy ambassadors of the pre-tertiary education system and embrace all the reforms that are currently ongoing.

Source: citifmonline