Educationist, Nii Armah Addy has suggested reformation of under-performing schools over the Education Minister’s decision to close down non-performing schools.
The Education Minister, Dr. Adwutwum announced that schools that do not perform well face the risk of being closed down. He made this statement whilst addressing heads of schools at the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, which took place in Kumasi on Saturday, March 11.
According to him, non-performing schools would be closed down while affected students will be redistributed to nearby schools to continue their education.
In an interaction with UniversNews, Nii Armah Addy expressed disagreement to the decision, suggesting that the ministry of education should prioritize the needs of these schools to shape them to be better. According to him, non-performing schools should not be closed down but rather reformed by addressing the inadequacies of the schools.
”For the minister to say schools are going to close down, I don’t think it as easy as that and I don’t think it has gotten to the point where they need to throw their hands in despair because the real challenge is to turn around those schools. Let them put in place what is lacking in the schools and make it look good. If the material resources are inadequate, then it can affect educational performances. If teachers and management are not good, students suffer,” he said.
He also suggested that government collaborates with management of schools and parents of students to improve the situation of under-performing schools. According to him, management of these non-performing schools and the parents along with students can work together to express their pressing needs to the government to aid the development of the school.
”Management, I mean the parents, teachers and children would all have to come together to fashion out what their challenges are, discuss it in a forum then prefer solutions to it. They should all work together. Nothing should be in isolation where policies are being implemented and pushed down their throats”.
