By Prince Agbenyefia & Vincent Mensah
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A new Education Bill will soon be introduced in Parliament to decentralize education management to the district level, Paapa Owusu Ankomah, Minister for Education, Youth and Sports, has said.
He said, this was in line with efforts to improve team-building and collaborative work to deepen community involvement in educational management.
Speaking at the 60th Speech and Prize Giving Day of St. Mary’s Secondary School at Apowa in the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese recently, Paapa Owusu Ankomah, said the essence of this was to get communities involved in the management of education and for School Management Committees (SMCs) to become more accountable to the people.
The theme for the celebrations was St. Mary’s Boys Perspective – 60 years of Quality Education.
The Minister stated that government would this year introduce a new policy on funding of tertiary education to remove the bottlenecks that characterise the financing of tertiary education.
According to him, the Ghana Education Service had observed with grave concern and disappointment, increasing cases of indiscipline in some schools coupled with drug abuse, sale of narcotic drugs on campuses, stealing, occultism and examination malpractices.
Paapa Owusu-Ankomah said these acts contravene the concept of quality education and called on School Management Committees to stamp out these evils in the schools.
The Minister said, Government will from September this year, increase the duration of Senior Secondary School education from three to four years.
Mrs. Margaret Lemaire,the Headmistress, gave the assurance that the School would live up to the ideals for which it was established.
The School had produced men now in key positions in the country, citing Prof. Dominic Fobih, Minister for Lands, Forestry and Mines and Member of Parliament for Assin South, Mr. Charles Bucknor, an Industrialist, Mr. Francis Telfer, a Business Executive.
She said the School’s academic results continue to improve yearly. In 2005, out of 379 students who sat for SSSCE, 86 passed in all eight subjects, while in 2006, 205 students out of 352 had all the eight passes in the WASSCE.
Mrs. Lemaire reported that discipline has also improved tremendously as a result of the determination and commitment of both management and staff.
The School was second in the National Debate Contest organized by Infinite Media in collaboration with the Ministry of Education in October 2006 she told the gathering
According to her, the School’s facilities intended for 200 students now cater for, 1,024 and appealed to Paapa Owusu-Ankomah to complete school buildings lying idle since 1999 for use as dormitories, pointing out that out of 112 staff members, only 19 have accommodation on campus.
Most Rev. John Martin Darko, Bishop of Sekondi-Takoradi, stressed on discipline, and morality and urged the students to obey their parents and teachers.
Mrs. Gladys Asmah, a Member of Parliament and Minister for Fisheries, launched the 60th Anniversary School Magazine, the first 10 copies of which were sold for ¢50 million.
The bust of Most Rev. William T. Porter, the last foreign Archbishop of Cape Coast, was blessed and unveiled by Bishop Darko.
Among the prominent personalities present were Professor Addow Obeng, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Mr. Anthony E. Amoah, Western Regional Minister, Odeneho Gyapong Ababio, President of the National House of Chiefs, District Chief Executives and Past Students of the School.
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