The Africa Center for Policy Development and Planning (ACPDP), as part of measures put in place to protect Private Education in Ghana, held a Stakeholders Conference for Private Schools in the Greater Accra region on November 9, 2022.
In her opening address, the Country Director of ACPDP, Mrs. Theresa Frempong stated that the ordeal Private schools suffered within the COVID period, motivated the consultations leading to the formulation and development of the Child Education Support Policy(CESP), after going through various phases of development.
The participants of the conference drawn from about 1000 schools in Greater Accra, were taken through the policy presentation by the Managing Director (MD) of Westom Insurance Brokers, Mrs. Adwoa Pinamang Acquah who is the leading Consultant for the policy.
She took participants through the different developmental stages through which the policy has gone.
She explained the various service components the CESP which include; School Management system, Accounting system, School Fees Arrears Recovery service, Legal Service, School Monitoring & Supervision, Staff Capacity Building, Brokerage services, Life Insurance for Owners, Staff, Pupils & Parents, Assets Insurance for the School building and its contents against, fire, flood and natural disasters.
Participants took turns to ask questions and received satisfactory answers.
The Inspector General of the National School Inspectorate Authority (NaSIA), Dr. Hagar Hilda Ampadu who was the Guest Speaker of the conference, in her speech reemphasized the need for schools to be properly insured as a requirement of the National Insurance Commission (NIC), soon to be enforced in the education sector, as was contained in a letter recently written to NaSIA by the NIC.
She expressed her outfit’s desire to have the Private Education sector protected. “So when the invitation came, as regulators, we were very happy because the policy is such that if a parent losses his livelihood or in an eventuality of death, the policy will give the child a scholarship to continue their education,” she stated.
Dr. Ampadu expressed her believe in the importance of the CESP in bringing benefits not only to the schools but also parents in distress times to secure the learners education, and entreated all private school owners to sign onto the policy.
Mr. Enoch K. Gyetuah, the Executive Director of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) in his solidarity message, recounted some of the challenges private schools encountered within the COVID lockdown, and the calls his outfit made to government, which made the proposal from Africa Center for Policy Development and Planning very timely and welcoming when it’s leader approached GNACOPS.
He gave the Council’s appreciation of the policy intervention and fully endorsed it for the adoption of all private schools.
The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), Mr. Justice King, in his address commended ACPDP, for the comprehensiveness of the policy and encouraged private schools to embrace the policy. “It’s not going to be easy, but we need to forge ahead because for us as knowledge industry, we need to ensure that we build and raise standards that will give qualify education to every Ghanaian child.”
He advised every proprietor to consider the policy carefully and use it to their advantage.
The National Council for Parent Teacher Associations (NC-PTA) represented by the National Administrator, Mr. Charles Adjetey Sowah, also addressed participants, and expressed the Council’s appreciation of the policy which is centered on the protection of their children’s education.
Participants demonstrated their acceptance and endorsement by signing up their schools onto the policy.
