You dare not close down schools – Mahama tells Education Minister
Former
President, John Dramani Mahama has asked the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw
Osei Adutwum not to shut down any school in the country.
According
to Mr. Mahama, it is the ultimate responsibility of the Minister is to help
students to achieve better results and not shut their schools. Hence, if he can’t
do so, then he should resign.
“Help
them achieve better results and provide better education for the children, but
don’t you dare close schools. The Minister for Education should resign if his
only solution to a problem is to close schools,”
he stated.
Mr.
Mahama made this statement on Sunday, March 19, at Adudwama in the Ahafo Ano
South East Constituency whiles addressing some branch executives of the
National Democratic Congress (NDC).
It
would be recalled that the Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum challenged
the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS) and Principals of
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions to improve
their educational outcomes or stand the risk of having their institutions
closed down.
Dr.
Adutwum explained that a school with a consistent zero to ten percent pass rate
should put together intervention programmes to ensure that majority of their
students will find opportunities for further studies, rather than becoming a
liability to their parents and society due to their inability to pass their
exam.
The
Minister said that closing down such schools would help save the nation from
the huge financial losses being incurred by the government on such schools.
The
Bosomtwe lawmaker said in such a situation, the affected students would be
redistributed to other nearby schools, so they could continue their education.
However,
a cross-section of Ghanaians and some stakeholders in the education sector including
the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has criticized the
minister’s statement.
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