Over 800 private school owners and teachers are expected to benefit from an educational leadership programme which focuses on equipping them with the needed teaching skills for service delivery.
The five-day leadership programme which is a Ministry of Finance (MoF) training and re-training sponsored programme and organised by the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) in Accra yesterday focused on two areas namely leadership training and common core programme.
Other supporting partners are the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations (MoELR), Organised Labour and Employment Associations.
Under this training, proprietors of private schools would be trained in curriculum development, educational governance, school finance and management while teachers would receive training on the common core programmes in relation to the new educational curriculum.
Speaking at the event, the Head of the International and Regional Economic Policy Unit under the Economic Strategy and Research Division of the MoF, Mr. Enoch Obeng-Darko, stated that development of the training programme was based on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on private schools in the country.
“This is the call against the backdrop of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 during which we had those who were formally in the educational sector in terms of teaching within both the public and private sector”, he explained.
“We are also aware that government even initiated certain programmes which supported the public educational teachers. But we were also informed that the private sector in terms of those who owned schools and teachers suffered adversely by the pandemic.
“It is against this backdrop that government met with its social partners to see how best it can put in place a mechanism to support the private education sector and the hospitality industry”, he added.
Mr. Obeng-Darko, said similar programme was being held by different educational institutions across the country to help build the teaching capacity of teachers and school owners.
On his part, the Executive Director of GNACOPS, Mr Enoch Kwesi Gyetuah said the leadership programme afforded private school owners the opportunity to establish a long lasting collaboration between MoF and GNACOPS in the area of capacity enhancement which would lead to optimal productivity.
He further explained that supervisors from the University of Education, Winneba, Trade Union Congress (TUC), National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA) and other institutions would be present to monitor the programme.
Moreover, the Deputy Registrar in charge of Professional Operations at the National Teaching Council (NTC), Mr. Lawrence Sarpong charged the beneficiaries of the programme to deliver educational content in line with the national goals of the country.
He added that the educational system was going through different forms of transformation and that it behoves private schools to learn and adapt to the changes in the educational system in order to catch up with the global trend.
There were also solidarity messages from the Private Education Coalition (PEC), National Schools Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), NaCCA and others at the event.