Ekumfi Attakwaa (C/R)-Ghana, Feb. 07, GNA – Mr Ayyub Morgan, a retired educationist, has urged stakeholders, especially the Government and parents, to focus on basic education to lay the best foundation for pupils.
He noted that the most crucial period of a child’s development was the time he/she spent in basic school and, therefore, encouraged parents to give those children the best attention.
Mr Morgan, a former Member of the Ghana Education Service (GES) Council, made the call at the 44th Anniversary and Second Speech and Prize-Giving Day of Ekumfi Attakwaa T.I. Ahmadiyya Basic School.
The celebration was on the theme: “Making the Child the Focus of Education at the Basic School Level, What Must Be Done.”
It was attended by dignitaries including Nana Gyaben VIII, Nyimfahen of Ekumfi Traditional Area, Mr Ishaque Ismaeel Abbew; School Improvement Support Officer, Ekumfi Essarkyir, Mr Mohammed Abdullah Quantson, HeadMaster, E-AMASS, and past headteachers of the school.
Mr Morgan described the theme as ‘unique’ and ‘appropriate’ but regretted that the Government had not given much attention to basic level education as had been to SHS and tertiary, adding that basic schools generally lacked infrastructure, teaching and learning resources.
Additionally, most parents did not fulfil their responsibilities, while teachers, particularly in deprived areas, were not well catered for with some not able to perform their professional responsibilities.
He said basic education had been designed to prepare and equip the child with the fundamentals for the future but it had not received the attention it required for an effective educational foundation.
Mr Morgan said the provision of infrastructure for basic schools was a constitutional obligation and so the Government must live to that obligation.
He advised the GES and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Education Unit to collaborate with the National Teaching Council to train and retrain teachers to be able to teach the children well, and called for an improvement and intensification of supervision and monitoring at that level.
He urged teachers to spend time studying the relevant laws relating to children, make the school environment child friendly, respect the rights of the child, and stop physical and psychological harassment of children.
He encouraged them to re-examine themselves and resolve to work harder and more effectively to continue to train children capable of contributing to national development.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Isaac Oscar Odoom, the Ekumfi District Education Director, said every stakeholder had a role to play in improving basic education to complement government’s efforts.
Mr Yusuf Ibrahim Dadzie, Headteacher of the School, mentioned inadequate teaching staff, perennial flooding, low enrolment and deplorable state of the school building and KG playground as some of its challenges.
He stated, for instance, that the primary block was “gradually losing its strength” due to floods, which occurred anytime it rained, leaving its walkways flooded and appealed to all stakeholders to go to their aid.
Awards were presented to deserving students and staff.
