<div dir="ltr"><br clear="all"><div style="" id="stcpDiv"><h1 class="" itemprop="itemReviewed" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Thing"><span itemprop="name">Education policy, 100 balloons and broken dreams [Article]</span></h1>
<span style="display:yes" class=""> Friday 3rd June , 2016 4:10 pm</span>
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<img src="http://citifmonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/BECE-620x330.jpg" class="" alt="Education Minister Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang inspecting B.E.C.E candidates." height="330" width="620">
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<div class="">Education Minister Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang inspecting B.E.C.E candidates.</div>
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<p class=""><span class=""><span class="" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0);display:inline-block"><span><span style="background-image:url("http://w.sharethis.com/images/facebook_counter.png")" class=""> </span><span class=""><span style="display:inline-block" class=""><span class="">48</span></span></span></span></span></span>
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title huh? Well, it won’t be so funny after I connect the dots and
unveil a stark picture of a country whose impaired educational system is
producing citizens that are not ready for the demands of a knowledge
economy.</p>
<p>Across the civilized world, all economic development models are
structured around skilled workforce that are capable of innovating and
using technological tools to solve social problems.</p>
<p>The core foundation – science, technology, engineering and
mathematics – are therefore a strategic imperative to ensure global
competitiveness.</p>
<p>The Ghanaian narrative is however different. Not only are our
Universities overly skewed towards the humanities at the expense of the
sciences, but performance at the basic level (Basic Education
Certificate Examination) raises critical questions whether certain
aspects of public policy on education is anachronistic or whether
bureaucracy within Ghana Education Service (GES) may be a contributory
factor to the problem.</p>
<p><strong>So what is The Problem?</strong></p>
<p>In the next 10 minutes or so, I hope to engage your interest by
focusing on Gomoa West district as a microcosm of a national problem on
education. It does appear, that the issue of poor B.E.C.E results, year
after year only becomes topical for a short fashionable while, useful
only for political point scoring. I would argue however that it is the
most essential conversation to have if strong foundations for growth are
going to be laid.</p>
<p>According to data from the District League Table (DLT), an annual
report by UNICEF and Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Gomoa West
has experienced some of the worst performance among 216 districts
nationwide.</p>
<p>In 2014, the district ranked 208th (with a weighted index of 41) while it ranked last in 2016.</p>
<p>The report aggregates data from various sectors (health, sanitation,
education, etc.) and creates a weighted index to rank performance.
Again, data from Ghana Education Service show BECE average pass of
31.74% (2011-2014) for the district.</p>
<p>Albeit this compares favourably to districts within upper East for
instance, the question of “why” still remain relevant as a way of
unearthing the subtle drivers of underperformance.</p>
<p>On 20.05.2016, Rural Heights Foundation embarked on yet another Gomoa
Education Project that saw the donation of goodies to the Kindergarten
class of Darumpong Catholic Primary, including 100 balloons and also
held coaching sessions for Junior Students majority of whom, almost
invariably, suffer shattered dreams after experiencing the fate of those
who fail to advance to Senior High School each year.</p>
<p>As part of the project, the Foundation also engaged the teaching
staff in a dialogue on possible causes of poor B.E.C.E performance.
Incidentally, this very Basic School, with a population of about 700
pupils, is the alma mater of the incumbent Member of Parliament and also
the two aspirants contesting for the seat on NPP and NDC ticket.</p>
<p>In an interactive forum dubbed “The Future leaders Dialogue Series”
the teaching staff of Gomoa Darumpong, raised critical issues of policy
and administrative importance that may be contributing to the poor
B.E.C.E performance in districts such as Gomoa West. Issues identified
and discussed include language, teacher-pupil ratio, lack of adequate
instructional materials and the unintended consequences of school
feeding program, inter alia.</p>
<p>In terms of language, the consensus was that the current
pseudo-exoglossic policy of 70:30 with 30% being Ghanaian indigenous
language as instruction medium may be having counterproductive impact on
comprehension. A greater emphasis on local language as medium of
instruction may be more effective in laying a foundation for
comprehending abstract concepts.</p>
<p>Secondly, the school feeding program, though successful in attaining
high enrolment, it has negatively impacted teacher-pupil ratio, with
implications for quality. This view is shared by some researchers. For
instance, Yelkpieri and Bilikpe (2013) in a study of capitation grant
draws similar conclusion about enrolment data and tuition quality.</p>
<p>In order to improve performance outcomes at the basic education
level, considerable attention is required in the area of administrative
inefficiency, coordinated policy execution and a remodelling of language
policy from exoglossic to endoglossic over time.</p>
<p><strong>About Rural Heights Foundation</strong></p>
<p>Rural Heights Foundation is a non-profit organisation that engages in
policy advocacy and social interventions in the area of well-being,
education and micro enterprise within rural Ghana.</p>
<p>The Future Leaders Dialogue Series is part of the Foundation’s Gomoa
Education Project (GEP) where staff and volunteers troop to Gomoa West
to fete KG pupils in a fun atmosphere with drinks, balloons and video of
Barney & Friends while designated resource persons facilitate a
workshop for teachers on issues related to pedagogy and performance
improvement.<br>
–<br>
By: Nkunimdini Asante-Antwi<br>
<a href="mailto:n.asante-antwi@ruralheights.org">n.asante-antwi@ruralheights.org</a></p></div></div> - See more at: <a href="http://citifmonline.com/2016/06/03/education-policy-100-balloons-and-broken-dreams-article/#sthash.CwGuOZhb.dpuf">http://citifmonline.com/2016/06/03/education-policy-100-balloons-and-broken-dreams-article/#sthash.CwGuOZhb.dpuf</a></div><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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